Introduction by Gabrielle Davenport One might describe Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf as a veritable celebration of process. In the choreopoem, Shange outlines the healing experiences of several women of color and highlights the role of their communities in supporting their rehabilitation. In her dramatic … Read more
Download “‘There is No Incongruence Here’: Hispanic Notes in the Works of Ntozake Shange” (PDF) here. Reprinted with permission from CLA (College Language Association) Journal. Vanessa K. Valdés’ groundbreaking essay “‘There is No Incongruence Here’: Hispanic Notes in the Works of Ntozake Shange” was one of the first works to comprehensively examine Spanish language and … Read more
Download “A Hole in the Sky” (PDF) here. Reprinted with permission from World Literature Today. During his distinguished career, Nigerian born writer Niyi Osundare has worked in a variety of genres from scholarly essays to plays and poetry. His works include Songs of the Market Place (1984), Waiting Laughters (1990) Songs of the Season (1990), … Read more
Download “Project ‘For Colored Girls:’ Breaking the shackles of role deprivation through prison theatre” (PDF) here. Reprinted with permission from The Arts in Psychotherapy. Lorraine Moller directs inmate theatre productions under Rehabilitation through the Arts (RTA) and Theatre Arts Connection (TAC) operating within the New York State Department of Corrections. She directed a production of … Read more
In this video Tina Campt introduces a panel discussion of Tyler Perry’s 2010 film version of Ntozake Shange’s 1975 Obie Award-winning play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. In the video, Ms. Shange speaks candidly with Soyica Diggs Colbert, the Assistant Professor of English at Dartmouth College and now … Read more
In this video, “Performing Shange,” Barnard students pay tribute to Ms. Shange with ensemble performances of dance, music, and theater. Led by music producer and BCRW Alumnae Fellow Ebonie Smith ’07, the students perform excerpts from Ntozake Shange’s oeuvre. Their collective discussions of Shange’s work resulted in adaptations and original pieces that are both directly … Read more
“I use poetry the way some people use encyclopedias: to find out more. I listen for a voice that springs from a real breath, a sweating body that speaks, or I stop reading.”—Ntozake Shange, interviewed in “Rescuing the Canon” in June Jordan’s Poetry for the People: A Revolutionary Blueprint (New York: Routledge, 1995). Works by … Read more
it is possible to start a phrase with a word and end with a gesture/ that’s how I’ve lived my life/ that’s how I continue to study /produce black art—Ntozake Shange, “why I had to dance” In the academic year 2012-2013, renowned poet, performance artist, playwright, and novelist Ntozake Shange, Barnard class of 1970, came … Read more
Obie-Award-winning playwright, performer, and Emerson College Professor Emerita Robbie McCauley speaks about her 30-year range of experiences with for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf. Emphasizing the context of Shange’s choreopoem in black/American history and culture, Professor McCauley shares her thoughts on being a member of the play’s Broadway … Read more
Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf opens with a poem entitled “dark phrases.” The first stanza reads: dark phrases of womanhoodof never havin been a girlhalf-notes scatteredwithout rhythm/ no tunedistraught laughter fallinover a black girl’s shoulderit’s funny/ it’s hystericalthe melody-less-ness of her dancedon’t tell nobody don’t … Read more
