Aishah Rahman

Aishah Rahman, born Virginia Hughes (1936- 2014) was an African-American playwright and author. Aishah was a Professor of Literary Arts at Brown university and taught there from 1992-2011. A graduate of Howard University and Goddard College, Rahman, along with Amiri Baraka, Larry Neal, Sonia Sanchez and others was active in the 1960’s Black Arts Movement. Her writing is described as adhering a to a “jazz aesthetic. ” She was the author of numerous plays, including the dramas “Unfinished Women Cry In No Man's Land While a Bird Dies in Gilded Cage, “The Mojo And The Sayso,” “Only in America,” “Chiaroscuro” and 3 plays with music, “Lady Day A Musical Tragedy,” “The Tale of Madame Zora” and “Has Anybody Seen Marie Laveau?” Her plays were produced at the Public Theatre, Ensemble Theatre, BAM and theaters and universities across the United States. She served as director of playwriting at the New Federal Theater in New York. Among her numerous fellowships, grants and awards are a special citation from the Rockefeller Foundation of the Arts for dedication to playwriting in the American Theater, The Doris Abramson Playwriting Award for The Mojo and the Sayso, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship.

Her plays are distributed by Broadway Play Publishing. Chewed Water: A Memoir, the story of growing up in Harlem in the 1940’s and 50s, was published in 2001 by University of New England Press.

Publication/plays

• Chiaroscuro
• Mingus Takes (3)
• The Mojo And The Sayso
• Unfinished Women Cry In No Man's Land While A Bird Dies In A Gilded Cage

all by Broadway Play Publishing Inc.

External links

• Template:Worldcat id
• African American Female Playwrights - Aishah Rahman