Literary Arts

Aishah Rahman, Professor Emerita of Literary Arts, died on December 29, 2014. She was born in Harlem on November 4, 1936 and was living in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, at the time of her death.  An accomplished playwright and author, Aishah Rahman was a Professor of Literary Arts; she taught at Brown 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. She described her writing as adhering to a “jazz aesthetic,” and 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 three 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. Her plays are distributed by Broadway Play Publishing. Chewed Water: A Memoir, the story of growing up in Harlem in the 1940’s and 50's, was published in 2001 by University of New England Press.