Awards & Winners

Adrienne Kennedy

Date of Birth 13-September-1931
Place of Birth Pittsburgh
(United States of America, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County, Area code 412, Area code 878)
Nationality United States of America
Also know as Adrienne Lita Hawkins
Profession Writer, Playwright, Teacher
Adrienne Kennedy is an African-American playwright and was a key figure in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. She is best known for her first major play Funnyhouse of a Negro. Many of Kennedy's plays explore issues of race, kinship, and violence in American society, and many of her works are "autobiographically inspired." In 1995, critic Michael Feingold of the Village Voice declared that "with Beckett gone, Adrienne Kennedy is probably the boldest artist now writing for the theater." Kennedy is noted for the use of surrealism in her plays. Her plays are often plotless and symbolic, drawing on mythical, historical and imaginary figures to depict and explore the American experience. New York Times critic Clive Barnes noted that "While almost every black playwright in the country is fundamentally concerned with realism—LeRoi Jones and Ed Bullins at times have something different going but even their symbolism is straightforward stuff—Miss Kennedy is weaving some kind of dramatic fabric of poetry."

Awards by Adrienne Kennedy

Check all the awards nominated and won by Adrienne Kennedy.

2003


Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards
(Lifetime Achievement Award)

1996


Obie Award for Best New American Play
Honored for : June And Jean In Concert, Sleep Deprivation Chamber

1990


American Book Awards
Honored for : People Who Led to My Plays

1964


Obie Award for Distinguished Plays
Honored for : Funnyhouse of a Negro