Ntozake Shange is a poet, playwright, writer, and performance artist who has won numerous awards. The work of Ntozake Shange has been widely anthologized and performed around the world. Her revolutionary work, which is focused on modern black women’s experiences, has solidified her status as a major American feminist and literary personality.
Shange has authored numerous essays regarding the experiences of various racial and ethnic groups, as well as offering her ideas on art, feminism, and music, to complement her triumphs in playwriting, poetry, and novels. She’s also the author of four children’s novels.
Now, I have listed here the most renowned works of Ntozake Shange that you should give time to read and ponder.
1. For colored girls who have considered suicide, when the rainbow is enuf : a choreopoem by Ntozake Shange( Book )
Ntozake Shange’s earliest and most acclaimed theater play, for colored females who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, opened in 1976. It consists of a sequence of literary monologues complemented with dancing and music, a genre Shange dubbed the choreopoem. relates the experiences of seven women who have been oppressed in a racist and sexist culture. It has 90 editions published between 1975 and 2014 in 3 languages.
This is a work inspired by Shange’s personal experiences. Shange has admitted to attempting suicide four times in public. She explained how she came up with the title of her choreopoem in a phone interview with CNN: “I was driving the No. 1 Highway in northern California and I was overcome by the appearance of two parallel rainbows. I had a feeling of near death or near catastrophe. Then I drove through the rainbow and I went away. Then I put that together to form the title.”
Shange also notes that she chose the word “colored” in the title of her choreopoem to make her choreopoem more inclusive.
2. Betsey Brown : a novel by Ntozake Shange( Book )
The narrative of Betsey Brown, a thirteen-year-old colored girl caught between childhood and adulthood. Set in St. Louis’ colored community in 1959, the year that school integration wreaked havoc on everyone’s lives, the story follows the pressure paths formed throughout black families by not only the racial prejudice and trial integration, but also by class division and cultural estrangement within the black community. It was released in 36 editions in four languages between 1985 and 2010.
African-American family life, coming of age, feminism, and racial independence are among the novel’s themes. Shange can use this structure to address both racial and feminist themes .
3. Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo : a novel by Ntozake Shange( Book )
Ntozake Shange’s debut novel was first released by St. Martin’s Press. This work, which took eight years to write, is about three Black sisters and their mother, for whom the names gave the book its title. The family is from Charleston, South Carolina, where their trade is spinning, weaving, and dying cloth; unexpectedly, this tactile inventiveness pervades both of the life of the main characters and the writing style. Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo combines the entirety of Shange’s prior work, Sassafrass, published by Shameless Hussy Press in 1977.
The narrative is punctuated with interludes in the form of letters, recipes, dream scenarios, and diary entries, which provide a more intimate look at each woman’s path toward self-realization and fulfillment, as is typical of Shange’s writing. Gullah/Geechee culture, women in the arts, the Black Arts Movement, and spirituality are just a few of the topics covered in the book. It was released in 65 editions in 5 languages between 1982 and 2018.
4. Nappy edges by Ntozake Shange( Book )
Ntozake Shange’s nappy edges is a book of poetry and prose poetry published by St. Martin’s Press in 1978. Love, racism, misogyny, and loneliness are explored in the poems, which differ in voice and style. nappy edges, Shange’s third collection of poetry, received great reviews and accolades from critics, including Holly Prado of the Los Angeles Times, who wrote, “This poetry collection, prose poems, and poetic essays mix true passion and heightened language.” It has 25 editions published between 1977 and 2004 in English and Undetermined
Fifty-five poems grouped under five headings: “things i wd say,” “love & other highways,” “closets,” ” & she bleeds,” and “she whispers with the unicorn.”
5. Liliane : resurrection of the daughter by Ntozake Shange( Book )
Ntozake Shange crafts the life of a remarkable young woman via the polyphony perspectives of Liliane Lincoln’s childhood friends, lovers, and chats with her therapist. Liliane Lincoln is an artist who uses her vivid and colorful artwork to reveal what she knows about herself to the world. Liliane gradually understands, however, that in order to survive, she must confront what she has kept hidden even from herself. Liliane is a remarkable portrayal of a woman discovering her true self. It has 20 editions published between 1994 and 2011 in English and Dutch