Aishah Rahman

Aishah Rahman, born Virginia Hughes was born November 4, 1936, in New York City, and died December 29, 2014, in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Rahman was an African-American playwright, author, professor and essayist. She was known for her participation and contribution to the Black Arts Movement, as well as her plays documenting various aspects of black life.

Rahman grew up as a foster child in Harlem. Church was a big part of her life, and she spent her free time as a child hopping between churches. She wrote her first play in sixth grade about germs for National Health week. She attended George Washington High School, and graduated in 1954. She enjoyed dancing, and was particularly interested in jazz music. Rahman has attributed her interest in theater to her difficult life growing up in foster care, as she often was “a conduct problem,” but found solace in the realm of theater, where her extroversion was celebrated. She attended Howard University and Goddard College, and in 1992 she became a professor of Literary Arts at Brown University. At Brown, Rahman worked to edit and create an anthology of plays from the university entitled NuMuse.

Rahman had two kids, Yoruba Richen and Kevin Brown. She has two grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

Rahman was an avid participator in the Harlem Black Arts Movement. She participated in numerous demonstrations, including in 1961 to protest the murder of Patrice Lumumba. Having grown up in Harlem, Rahman felt strongly connected to the people and the movement for a “black aesthetic,” as she calls it. She has published numerous essays about the movement.

The Black Arts Movement helped to propel Rahman forward as a Black playwright. She credits Adrienne Kennedy, Amiri Baraka, Sam Shepard, Frederico Garcia Lorca and Bertolt Brecht as her literary influences. Further yet, Rahman’s work was strongly influenced by jazz music, and jazz’s rhythm and meter is integral to the structure and flow she establishes in her plays.

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