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 web series, For Colored Boys: Redemption, filmmaker Stacey Muhammad calls on many of the same themes. However in this story, the process celebrated is that of a family’s reunion upon the father/husband’s return from prison. For Colored Boys deliberately calls on Shange’s legacy to “find a space to be human” and, although there was pushback against the name of the series, the activist and producer was determined to create a space for black men and black communities with the cathartic potential that for colored girls continues to offer its many readers.
Muhammad has been a longtime activist and cultural critic as well as an award winning filmmaker. Her films include: A Glimpse of Heaven, The Legacy of the Million Man March, I AM SEAN BELL, black boys speak, and Out of Our Right Minds, Trauma, Depression and the Black Woman. She is currently working on the second season of For Colored Boys: Redemption and is in talks to move the series to television. I interviewed Muhammad in July 2014.
