{"value"=>"<p>Written as a television play, was never produced it its entirety, but several scenes were recorded for a WBAI radio broadcast. The play's theme, with its anti-war message, concerns an aging hermit who finds a group of children that are the only survivors of an unnamed holocaust. The material for What Use Are Flowers?, 1961-1994 (. 4 lin. ft.) consists of several early drafts (first one dated December 19, 1961), the first printed draft (1966), the script with notes by Jewell Gresham-Nemiroff (1972), and a script and programs for the 1994 National Black Arts Festival performance. Documentation regarding various efforts at producing the play as a live performance and on television are included in the collection (1966-1991), as are the scenes used in the WBAI radio broadcast. The play was published in 1969 and 1972 and is included in Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays of Lorraine Hansberry along with Les Blancs, and The Drinking Gourd. First published in 1972 by Random House with a foreword by Julius Lester and critical backgrounds by Nemiroff for each play, the 1994 Vintage Books edition features an introduction by Margaret B. Wilkerson and a foreword by Jewell Gresham-Nemiroff. Editions in Arabic, French and German are included in this collection.</p>"}