The Legacy of Ntozake Shange
Remembering Ntozake Shange: Lost In Language & Sound
For Black History Month, I’m celebrating the legacy of my late sister Ntozake Shange. Did you know that her classic play for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf is the longest running Broadway play by a Black playwright in the history of Broadway? Starting in September 1976, for colored girls ran for a record 742 performances, surpassing the record of 530 performances set in 1959 by the great Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun.
But for colored girls was more than just a Broadway play. It was a true demarcation in cultural, literary and Broadway history. A cultural phenomenon that empowered women and disrupted what was then the standard concept of a play. Indeed, Ntozake coined her new art form a Choreo-poem, performative writing that blends poetry, dance, music and more. This new art form has found life in theater works and performances in our country and all across the globe.
Did you also know that Ntozake left a treasure trove of work including over 60 published works? A volume of her unpublished works, Sing A Black Girl’s Song, was published in 2022. While another book, Dance We Do, was also published posthumously in 2020.
One of her works I find to be surprisingly interesting and provocative, Lost In Language & Sound or how I found my way to the arts, is a collection of essays written by Ntozake and first published in 2011. You might think a series of essays about her life, her approach to her craft and ruminations on the development of for colored girls would be pedantic.
But you would be wrong. Lost In Language & Sound is a gorgeously written study of an artist’s self-reflection on family, art, history and just what it meant to her to be a part of a rich history and culture grounded in the arts and her blackness.
The audiobook version of Lost In Language & Sound is an absolute delight to hear aloud. You’ll
find that Ntozake‘s words inspire a different reaction from just reading them. The spoken word triggered new reminiscences and imagery for me that I didn’t experience with reading the written word alone.
So, if you are the least bit intrigued, I suggest pulling up a copy of Lost In Language & Sound or the audiobook and sharing some of your time with it.
By Paul T. Williams, Jr.
Ntozake Shange Trust
Management Trustee
for colored girls is back!
Paul Williams and Donald Sutton, representing the Ntozake Shange Trust, have announced that the late author’s groundbreaking Broadway play for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf is now available nationwide for licensing for amateur and professional productions.
for colored girls became a theater classic based on its first Broadway production in 1976 when it became the longest running play in the history of Broadway written by a Black author. Ever since, it has routinely been produced annually on college campuses throughout the nation as well as in community and regional theaters.
The most recent Broadway production of for colored girls in 2022, directed by award-winning choreographer and director Camille A. Brown, garnered seven (7) Tony nominations, including Best Revival of a Play. However, other productions of the play could not be authorized until recently. Now, the play is fully available for licensing in the United States through Concord Theatricals.
Many household names in theater and film honed their skills as one of the ladies in for colored girls. The list includes Angela Bassett, Alfre Wooward, Lynn Whitfield, S. Epatha Merkerson and Regina Taylor. The work was also adapted by Tyler Perry into a major motion picture in 2010 featuring Janet Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg, Kerry Washington, Phylicia Rasha, Thandiwe Newton and Loretta Divine among other notable cast members.
Parties interested in licensing for colored girls for stage productions should contact Concord Theatricals as indicated below:
Concord Theatricals
Professional Licensing Inquiries: professional@concordtheatricals.com
Nonprofessional Licensing Inquiries: nonprofessional@concordtheatricals.com
www.concordtheatricals.com
Go to officialntozakeshange.com to learn more about the life and legacy of Ntozake Shange.
The Shange Trust Announces the Audiobook for Sing A Black Girl’s Song Is Now Available
The audiobook for Sing A Black Girl’s Song: The Unpublished Works of Ntozake Shange, published by Legacy Lit, Hachette Book Group and released in September 2023, features a stellar list of narrators. Voices on the audiobook include celebrated talents such as Alfre Woodard, D. Woods, Regina Taylor, Lynn Whitfield, Okwui Okpokwasili, Imani Perry, Robin Miles and Tarana Burke. Shange’s sister, award-winning playwright and author, Ifa Bayeza, as well as Shange’s daughter, Savannah Shange, award-winning author and professor of Anthropology at UC Santa Cruz, have also lent their voices to this remarkable collection of never-before-published works by Shange. The audiobook of Sing A Black Girl’s Song is available wherever audiobooks are sold.
Sing a Black Girl’s Song is a new posthumous collection of Shange’s unpublished poems, essays and plays from throughout the life of the seminal Black feminist writer. Here we meet the young Shange, learn the moments that inspired for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf…, travel with an eclectic family of musicians, sit on “The Couch” opposite Shange’s therapist and discover plays written after for colored girls’ international success. Every fan of Ntozake Shange and her life’s work will want to own their copy of this remarkable volume and its exceptional audiobook.