[4] She is the artistic director of Chrysalis Theatre and has created original productions with music, dance, and masks for more than a decade.

Hairston is also the Louise Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor of Theatre and Afro-American Studies at Smith College.

Her plays have been produced at Yale Rep, Rites and Reason, the Kennedy Center, StageWest, and on public radio and television.

In addition, Hairston has translated plays by Michael Ende and Kaca Celan from German to English.

[6] Hairston was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where as a teenager she did community organizing work with union, civil rights and antiwar activism.