Aishah Rahman

Who is Aishah Rahman?

Aishah Rahman, born Virginia Hughes, is an African-American playwright.

Rahman grew up as a foster child in Harlem. She received a B. S. in political science from Howard University in 1968. Lady Day: A Musical Tragedy was a play about Billie Holiday. Unfinished Women Cry in No Man's Land While a Bird Dies in a Gilded Cage, juxtaposing the decisions of five unwed mothers with the death of Charlie Parker, premiered in 1977. She wrote a blues musical A Tale of Madame Zora, based on Zora Neale Hurston's life. In collaboration with Akua Dixon Turre she wrote the libretto for Anybody Seen Marie Laveau?, an opera about the New Orleans voodoo practitioner Marie Laveau.