Latest Blog

Who is Ntozake Shange and how does she write her poems?

Shange’s poetry, like her theatre, is uniquely her own. Her work is an examination of how words can be used to create a unique experience for the reader. She defies written English conventions in her poems by using non-standard spelling and punctuation.

A critic once said “ Shange’s poems arise” from such an intense honesty, from so fresh an awareness of the beauty of sound and of vision, from such mastery of words, from such compassion, humor, and intelligence.” That is one proof of how Shange was so passionate about her vision of writing poems. 

Shange’s style in the Times Literary Supplement was also described as: “She lets go with verbal runs and trills, mixes in syncopations, spins out evocative hanging phrases, variations on themes and refrains. Rarely does she come to a full stop, relying instead on line breaks, extra space breaking up a line, and/ or oblique strokes.” 

Shange explains the reasons she uses “lower-case letters, slashes, and spelling,” saying that “poems where all the beginning letters are capitalized” bore her, and that “I like the concept that letters dance.” Her unorthodox punctuation assures her that “the reader is not in control of the process.” The structure is tied to the music I hear behind the words.”

Here is the list of Ntozake Shange’s poetry by year.

1976 – Melissa and Smith Bookslinger (St. Paul, MN),

1977– Natural Disasters and other Festive Occasions (prose and poems), Heirs International (San Francisco, CA), 

1977 – A Photograph: Lovers in Motion: A Drama, S. French (New York, NY), 

1981 – Nappy Edges, St. Martin’s Press (New York, NY), 1978.

Some Men (poems), 

1983 – A Daughter’s Geography, St. Martin’s Press (New York, NY), 

1984 – From Okra to Greens, Coffee House Press (Minneapolis, MN), 

1987 – Ridin’ the Moon in Texas: Word Paintings (responses to art in prose and poetry), St. Martin’s Press (New York, NY), 

1992 – The Love Space Demands A Continuing Saga, St. Martin’s Press (New York, NY), 1991.

Three Pieces, St. Martin’s Press (New York, NY),

1994 – I Live in Music, edited by Linda Sunshine, illustrated by Romare Bearden,

… Read more

Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf, is a fascinating work on human fragility and the mature type. 

Colored Girls is primarily about Shange’s perceptions of other women of her own race. She writes about the dreams that all black women in her time possessed. According to Shange, many women’s primary motivation was their dreams of love and a better life. 

Ntozake Shange’s message or topic is her explanation of what it means to be a black woman in a world of harsh streets, deceptive men, and excruciating loss, which she wants everyone who reads her work to grasp, not just other black women. Regardless of how hard black women worked to achieve their goals, their aspirations were either shattered by a callous lover or destroyed by white people. Ntozake Shange writes with such zeal that anybody, regardless of background, may understand and profit from the message she conveys. 

She wants people to realize that black women don’t want sympathy; they want appreciation for the strength it required to survive those difficult times. 

They all recognize that their strength derives from something bigger than themselves, despite their imperfections and differences. “The Rainbow Is Enuf,” the second portion of the title, depicts their solidarity because they are a rainbow collectively.

Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf uses a unique aesthetic and compelling substance to give a message of hope and pride to her fellow black women.

… Read more

The significance of location in regard to food is discussed in this article. People get together over food. Ntozake Shange shows how recipes can be changed to fit a specific locale. People keep their food history with them when they move, but it evolves based on the availability of products, culture, traditions, and the influence of the current area. As a result, recipes are disseminated throughout the world, developing yet remaining loyal to tradition.

The recipes and essays are presented in a conversational tone by an experienced person who explains how to duplicate a recipe step by step. Individual preferences and ability levels are accommodated in the recipes, although basic assumptions about the reader’s knowledge base are made.

The food on the table, as well as the recipes from which the cuisine is prepared, bring together people from many cultures and locales. Ntozake Shange stresses the importance of the cuisine she details and provides recipes for, the food that is essential to her people, by writing about the food culture she hails from.

If I Can Cook, by Ntozake Shange, is a timeless story of a people’s migration and the cuisine that represents their living legacy and enjoyment of taste. This piece is a testament to food’s universality and individuality, since it can unite a large number of people while remaining a distinct, individual experience.

… Read more

On October 27, 2018 iconic playwright, author, and cultural influencer passed away. Ntozake Shange’s obituary acknowledged her cultural contributions.

Ntozake Shange, an award-winning African-American author whose choreopoem in 1976 “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow Is Enuf” received an Obie Award and a Tony Award nomination, died at the age of 70 on October 27, 2018.

Influenced by personal occasions, consisting of Ms. Shange’s numerous efforts to take her own life, the choreopoem combines uttered words, dance and music to narrate the story of seven Black ladies, each defined solely by their color (Ms. Shange herself played the Lady in Orange). The piece intends to discover the abuse, abandonment, and violence that women of color face by eventually uniting the seven women in “a laying on of hands.”

In 1973 after finishing her studies, Ms. Shange went back to the east coast to New York, New York, having previously shown the earlier versions of for colored girls … in California. The play debuted at Stage’s Public Theater in June 1976, following a performance in NoHo jazz loft Studio Rivbea. The play launched months later at the Cubicle Theater on Broadway, where it played 742 performances. Following Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, it was the second black female play to be staged on Broadway.

Ntozake Shange was born Paulette Linda Williams in Trenton, New Jersey in 1948. She attended the (USC) University of Southern California and Barnard College. She changed her name to Ntozake Shange, the Zulu name by which we know and love her, 2 years before graduating from USC with a Masters in American Research Studies. Ntozake means: “she who comes with her own things” and Shange means “who walks like a lion”. “As a feminist, I think it was ridiculous to be named after a boy,” Ms. Shange stated at 1984 interview with The New York Times

The literary works of Ntozake Shange are as diverse as they are iconic, her oeuvre includes plays, poems, novels, and more. Her works do have a common theme of describing the hardships and successes of black women and illuminating their humanity in artistic and emotional ways. Ntozake Shange’s obituary shows how her works are focused on addressing issues relating to race. The stories of black women take center stage in her oeuvre, and recount the experiences of little black girls and their struggles and journeys towards liberation as they mature into black women – and they frequently challenge the traditions of conventional,

… Read more

What is Choreopoem? 

A choreopoem is a type of dramatic expression that mixes poetry, movement, music, and song. Shange’s attempt to break shift from mainstream western poetry and storytelling resulted in a new art form that doesn’t have specific plot elements or characters, but instead focuses on eliciting an emotional response from the audience. Nontraditional spelling and African American Vernacular English are features of Shange’s work that set it apart from traditional American literature. Throughout the choreopoem, she emphasizes the importance of movement and nonverbal communication so that it can be used as a theatrical production rather than just poetry or dance .

There are many different types of choreopoems; however, most can be divided into three main categories: monodramas (one-act plays), polydramas (composite plays), or duodramas (two-act plays). Monodramas are usually written by one person with no musical accompaniment; polydramas usually have multiple authors and are accompanied by music; duodramas usually use two to four actors who perform together with minimal dialogue.

 

How did Choreopoem started?

Ntozake Shange invented the genre in 1974 at the women’s club “Bacchanal” in Berkeley, California. She was in the Bay with a group of ladies who included poets, dancers, and musicians. Shange studied dance under Sawyer, Mock, and Halifu Osumare at this time, and they are credited with encouraging her to pursue her passion for dance. Shange’s modern and linguistic and cultural configuration of choreopoem arose from not only her tribute to her African roots, but as well as from her involvement with feminist studies, dancing, and poetry, all of which merged to produce a Black American and Atlantic multidisciplinary genre.

Shange was influenced by the Black Arts Movement numerous women of the movement began 1960s who were using their work to oppose traditional Black Aesthetic attitudes and emphasize Black patriarchy and masculinity, as well as the feminist art movement, which concentrated on using art of many mediums to protests for war and in favor of civil and LGBT rights. Thus, in a personalized, familiar, yet constructed language and voice, her genre and praxis established an exploratory and important place for Black Women’s many and complex experiences.

Her choreopoem genre established story production procedures that went beyond what was available in both Western and European operatic dance and the Black Theatre heritage. She recognized and questioned the function of the Black Theatre culture in reinforcing Western cultural paradigms of innovation and thought in Black communities.

… Read more

Ntozake Shange was born Paulette L. Williams in Trenton, New Jersey on October 18, 1948,  Eloise Williams, a teacher and mental social worker and to Paul T. Williams, an air force surgeon.  Shange received her B.S. with honors. Barnard College in New York City awarded him an American Studies degree in 1970. While pursuing her master’s degree, Shange began to connect with feminist writers, poets, and performers after receiving an American Studies degree from the University of Southern California.

Shange met Paula Moss when she joined Malifu Osumare’s dance group, and their future collaborations led to Shange’s piece, the choreopoem for colored females who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf. The play premiered Off-Broadway in 1975 at the New Federal Theatre in New York City, before transferring to the Anspacher Public Theatre in 1976. The play won the Obie Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, and the AUDELCO Award after its Broadway premiere at the Booth Theatre later that year. It was originally written as a choreopoem, but it was later published as a book and converted as a stage play. For Colored Girls, starring Whoopi Goldberg, was written, produced, and directed by Tyler Perry in 2010.

 1974 – NDEA fellow ( An Act to strengthen the national defense and to encourage and assist in the expansion and improvement of educational programs to meet critical national needs and for other purposes) 

Obie Award – The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City.

Outer Critics Circle Award – The Outer Critics Circle Awards are presented annually for theatrical achievements both on Broadway and Off-Broadway. They are presented by the Outer Critics Circle (OCC), the official organization of New York theater writers for out-of-town newspapers, digital and national publications, and other media beyond Broadway.

Audience Development Committee (Audelco) Award – The AUDELCO (Audience Development Committee, Inc.) is an organization that acknowledges and honors Black Theatre and its artists in New York City.

Mademoiselle Award

Frank Silvera Writers’ Workshop Award, 1978 – the Frank Silvera Writers’ Workshop Foundation, Inc. was created in honor of Silvera and his efforts to support African-American actors and playwrights.

Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry,

… Read more

The Black Arts Movement—also known as BAM—has been described as the “aesthetic and spiritual sister of the Black Power concept. The Black Arts Movement is a subset of the Black Power Movement..” The Black Arts Movement was described by Larry Neal as a “radical reordering of the western cultural aesthetic,” with key principles focusing on “distinct symbolism, mythology, critique, and iconology,” as well as African Americans’ desire for “self-determination and nationhood.”

The movement began in the 1960s, and it was a response to what many African Americans saw as their lack of representation in mainstream culture. Some members of the movement were influenced by the civil rights movement, but others were not. They were instead inspired by ideas of Afrocentrism and Pan-Africanism.

The Black Arts Movement was also known for its use of art, music, literature, dance, and theater to celebrate blackness and explore black identity. Its participants included musicians such as Gil Scott-Heron (musician), Amiri Baraka (poet), Sun Ra (musician), Sonia Sanchez (dancer), Amiri Baraka (poet), Sterling Plumpp (poet) and Eddie Gladden (poet).

“There’s not a California style,” Shange said, “and there are certain emotions and a certain freeness that set those writers apart from those in the Chicago-St. Louis-Detroit triangle group…so that the chauvinism that you could see within this triangle, individuals don’t find too much in California.”

… Read more

Ntozake Shange’s work Liliane explores female sexuality extensively. In the midst of her father’s efforts to instill in Liliane an obligation to the racial uplift project and his desire for Liliane to marry a person with the possibility to become an influential leader in the Black community, throughout the novel, Liliane’s sexual and romantic relationships are diverse, varied, and interpersonal bridge gaps between both races and class.

Liliane Lincoln is an artist who uses her vivid and colorful artwork to show the world what she knows about herself. Liliane gradually understands, however, that in order to survive, she must confront what she has kept hidden from herself.

Liliane, the protagonist in Ntozake Shange’s novel, is extremely emotionally conflicted due to her family’s historical secrets, her own goals for herself, and her father’s desires for her. Furthermore, Liliane suffers from the existential torment of anti-black racism. Subsequently, Liliane’s interactions with her therapist are frequently tumultuous and incoherent as she struggles to develop her self-esteem as she matures and develops as a painter.

Liliane in Ntozake Shange’s Liliane is still a fascinating character, a chameleon who is both archetypal and distinctive, a woman whose heavy struggles with the emotional and social forces that both drive and sunder her are tempered by a wicked sense of humor.

… Read more

What if you were a restless 13-year-old African American aspiring to “be somebody” who was bused to a white school?

America was upended in 1957 when school integration and prejudice collided. In the United States, racial segregation refers to the separation of services and resources, which include residences, hospital attention, educational opportunities, jobs, and transport. Up to 1948, black units, mostly in the United States military, were normally isolated from white forces but directed by white leaders.

The fictional narrative by Ntozake Shange, Betsey Brown will capture our hearts at a moment when we want to do something in our lives but are unable to do so due to the segregation and discrimination that we face. In every manner, we’re restricted. 

Ntozake Shange narrates the narrative of Betsey Brown, a thirteen-year-old “colored girl” caught between the worlds of childhood and adult politics. The narrative depicts the impact of racism on children, something that no child should have to experience. It’s a narrative about “adolescent awakening” and the responsibilities that come with growing up. Betsey Brown was bullied at her all-white school. She has never been satisfied because everything boils down to racial profiling and judgement. 

Ntozake Shange has re-created a hilarious, delightful, and poignant vision of St. Louis and the Brown family in the story, which will amuse both young and old. She is a remarkable storyteller because she is passionate about fighting for the rights of people living in freedom around the world. It’s true: Betsey Brown is a stunningly wonderful piece of writing.

As time passes, many people will work to end segregation and racism. After all, we’re all dealing with the same problems in our lives at the end of the day. We’re trying to figure out how to deal with them. We’re fighting back, regardless of your nationality, language, or skin color.

You can read “Betsey Brown” to a buddy once you’ve finished reading it to yourself.

… Read more