Lorraine Hansberry Theatre

The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre began in 1981 with just fifteen hundred dollars in the bank and a vision to establish African American theatre as a pillar of the San Francisco arts scene. Founders Stanley E. Williams and Quentin Easter launched the company as a response to a landscape that lacked dedicated spaces for Black narratives. They spent their early years operating out of a succession of small, makeshift performance spaces before eventually securing a permanent home in the city's prestigious downtown theatre district.