Header Image - The Worlds of Ntozake Shange
The Worlds of Ntozake ShangeAND DIGITAL STORYTELLING

Tirzah Anderson

Unseen: What do we do now that it is seen?

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Attending the Unseen event was definitely inspiring for me, especially because I saw so many students, faculty, staff, alum, and members of the broader New York community in attendance, which showed that people are interested in understanding the hidden lives of so many that are now being unveiled. However, as someone who cares about active change and work towards social change, I wondered how the event would actually impact the actions of people in the Barnard Community. The two speakers spoke about how this archive would impact the photo editing practices at the New York Times, as editors will pay closer attention to how they are choosing photos and if those photo choices are in any way shaped by biases. However, I questioned the impact this would have on people outside of the world of photo editing who attended the event. Would they actually change their understandings of how race impacts their every day lives or would this just be another event with an interesting topic but a lack of action to combat racism.

My most pertinent question following the event is how do we as people within an elitist community of Barnard make certain ideas or perspectives unseen as well and I hope that I can answer this with due time. I want to ensure that I am not feeding into the erasure of certain voices or ideologies. I hope that we as a college, and that each person that attended that event is actively thinking about the ways they may be silencing certain perspectives because I think even that as a first step could be helpful. However, this needs to go further and people need to take active steps to ensuring that people and communities are seen. Even in our work in different archives, we should be looking to ensure that they are used in such a way that the most unseen and hidden perspectives are brought to light. It is our duty, especially with the access that we have been granted at Barnard and Columbia that we uncover silenced and undermined people and communities in every way we can.

What’s in a name?

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Like for many of us, I think a major aspect of my feminism stems from my mother and her influences. For me, I still think I am exploring my own “name” for my feminism. Growing up, my mother didn’t use very explicit language or phrasing when she discussed her feminism. Maybe she didn’t have the language to describe her feminism, or maybe she couldn’t find the perfect word for it. She expressed her feminism in actions, in what she said to people, in how she held strength, despite so many forces trying to make her weak, and so many other little acts of feminism that I am proud to have witnessed and hope to continue. Right now, I struggle to define the feminism that I identify with in one word or phrase, but I hope and strive to be persistent, strong, and an example of  what my feminism is. Despite, being unsure of how I would define my feminism, the closest I have come is womanism, probably because Alice Walker was one of my first examples of Black feminist literature. My mother has always talked about and quoted The Color Purple, making Alice Walker and that book an important part of my household and how we think about Black women and feminism. From a literary standpoint,  Celie, Shug, and Sofia were all important parts of the development of my feminist identity but most importantly, I was and am influenced by my mother and the other Black women in my life.

 

In terms of how I would identify the feminists we have discussed in this course, they all have different identities and are all a part of different feminist classifications, but if I had to identify them all under one word, it would probably be transnational feminists. I think that encapsulates these radical feminists in the best way and would be the most useful term to unify their various identities and positionalities, and how those impact their feminism. I think the term transnational will be useful to my archives project, as an overall term, but I hope that I can still identify the differences among these feminists because I think that understanding how these women were different is important to truly understanding their impact.

 

Can food disconnect you from community and culture?

by Tirzah Anderson 1 Comment

For various communities, connections to family often stem from cultural connections, including language, food, and traditions. It is common across cultures that tradition brings family together. Often, these traditions include food, which can create an integral aspect of how culture is shared, created, and passed along to other people in a community. Ntozake Shange and Verta Mae Grosvenor engage with cooking and food as a means of engaging with culture and passage of culture, as well as a way to find commonality between communities and various cultures. In particular, Shange focuses on the various communities in the African diaspora and the foods they eat and produce. Her work signals to ideas of connectivity, especially in the ways that the diaspora was able to create culture that was in many ways similar in taste, style, technique, and ingredients. However, the aspect of their works that I am curious about  is how associations of food, cooking, and eating can infringe upon the passing of culture and connectivity of community.

Grosvenor, in particular, notes that “some people got such bad vibrations, that to eat with them would give you such bad indigestion”(xiii), highlighting that the food and the preparation of food is a vital part of the vibration she outlines, but that the outcome of that is also an integral part of that vibration. Thinking about food, how can who you eat with or how food is eaten change the way that food impacts a person or how it is passed down? I can think of the ways that food may be associated with negative people or memories and how that can make the food have a different impact on someone. For instance, there are foods that are associated with bad memories, maybe a food that made someone sick, or food someone ate when there was conflict at the dinner table and I wonder how that shifts the vibrations.  This may highlight the ways that our physical and psychological qualities influence our food vibrations, impacting the ways that we understand culture and connections. If this negative association, whether it is natural or developed over time, can exist from bad vibrations food might separate people from cultures or communities with which they may be connected to in some way outside of food. I am curious if those negative vibrations be reversed and given new meaning, allowing connections to continue and grow despite these bad vibrations.  

for colored girls–heteronormativity and misconceptions surrounding sexual health

by Tirzah Anderson 1 Comment

Shange, highlights conceptions of heteronormativity and the perceived association of sexual health with sexuality in “for colored girl who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf” through the discussion the women have about testing for sexually transmitted infections. In this conversation, Shange highlighted the stereotypes and assumptions that were prevalent surrounding HIV, especially in this time period when there was a lack of research surrounding STIs. It is particularly interesting to note that she highlights heteronormative ideas through a discussion between women, who she is thus implicating for contributing to a heteronormative system that perpetuates homophobic notions of masculinity, but she also shows the ways in which men, even gay men, may have contributed to patriarchal and heteronormative systems.

One woman suggested that another woman’s man had been cheating on her and said she specifically saw him at a gay bar with another man. They implied that because he was gay, she needed to get tested for “aids”, which she replied to with “i know you’re not suggesting he’s on the dl”. Shange illustrates the association many people create between HIV/Aids and gay men, specifically Black gay men. Further, she is confused and unsure about how she contracted HIV and how she will continue her life with HIV, signaling to the lack of knowledge surrounding HIV during this time. She asks “am I going to die?”, despite the fact that HIV’s symptoms are treatable. In this, Shange reflects a lack of understanding around HIV, that often led to misconceptions around how it was contracted and how it would affect relationships.

Additionally, it is important to note that when she finds out that she is HIV positive, she tells the man, who ultimately becomes aggressive and hits her. His own internalized homophobia and heteronormative ideas of manhood lead to his abuse of a woman. This is important to note, because Shange is showing that not only is the homophobia he is experiencing affecting his life, but it is also permeating throughout the community leading to a greater heteronormative system.

This conversation surrounding HIV/Aids is still highly relevant due to the ways that it continues to affect Black communities in different ways based on sex education and the misconceptions around it. Shange was highlighting the ways that it was perceived in many Black communities through this work. I have attached a video which highlights the current ways in which HIV/Aids is affecting Black communities.

the journey of self love, tenderness, and fulfillment

by Tirzah Anderson 1 Comment

 

In December of 2017, I, a 17-year-old first-year in college went to a SZA concert. Of course, I hada list of my favorite songs from ctrl. Not on that list was “Garden (Say it Like Dat)”, because I perceived the song to be about a lover fulfilling a woman and assuring her. However, during the concert, SZA explained the true importance of the song, as she revealed that the song was an ode to herself. She wrote the song to confirm herself, assure herself, and most importantly love herself.  In reading “nappy edges” I immediately thought of this song as I found similar themes throughout “nappy edges” when Shange described the relationship that the women in these poems developed within themselves.

Throughout “nappy edges” Shange notes the importance of the self in finding happiness, love, and appreciation. She specifically outlines this at the end of “resurrection of the daughter”, where Shange wrote

” she wd find someone who cd survive tenderness

she wd feed someone who waz in need of her fruits “

 

Later, Shange then wrote,

 

” & she waz last seen in the arms of herself

blushing

having come to herself ”

 

These quotes showcase the ways in which the woman in the poem was able to feed herself with love, provide herself with tenderness, and love herself, which ultimately led to her own identity and her own livelihood. This subject was able to support herself and found that she, herself, was “in need of her fruit” and “could survive tenderness”. Thus, she was able to fully appreciate what she could offer as support and was able to utilize those strengths for herself.

Self-love and appreciation are integral to finding one’s own identity and being comfortable in oneself, which is something highlighted by both Shange within “nappy edges” and by SZA in “Garden (Say It Like Dat).

 

Ntozake Visit and Reflecting on Mother/Daughterhood

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In reflecting upon our visit with Ntozake, I find myself thinking of mothering. Although that may not have been the main topic of discussion for our conversations with her, I cannot help but think of my own mother after the visit. Ntozake’s work often centers a type of motherhood, not always biological in nature, and after meeting her, I felt a need to call my mom and talk to her about my experience. When I called my mother, after sending her a few photos and a video of Ntozake addressing my mom, her only response was “You are blessed”.

For me, my experience meeting with Ntozake centered me back into the ways that my mother first introduced me to her work and the conversations that I have had with my own mother surrounding identity and the ways that our identities change our experiences in the world. My own mother influences the way I see Ntozake’s work and the way I understand my own lived experiences, so I wanted to share this experience with her as much as possible, because I know if she was granted with the opportunity to meet with Ntozake so openly she would utilize and appreciate it fully.

It is also important to note that although her work focuses on motherhood and ideas of mothering often, it is not just content of her work that highlights ideas of motherhood, but also the ways in which her work is intergenerational and can bring common ground to “mothers” and “daughters”, not only biological ones, but relationships that are created from commonality and experience.

 

 

Ntozake, Hagedorn, and Histories

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Shange and Hagedorn’s writings are similar, not just in style and in their use of language to
induce an experience for the reader, but in their criticisms of colonization and exertion of power,
which they highlight through the use of allusions to history. As a Filipina, Jessica Hagedorn, focuses
on the Spanish colonization of the Philippines. Similarly, Ntozake Shange, focuses on the ways in
which historical actions including slavery and colonization have impacted various Black
communities, globally. Through their allusions to history, the reader is able to gain an understanding
of the ways in which each work is indicative of actual physical experiences, but also the ways in
which the author expands on those experiences and delves into the impacts of those experiences on
individuals and their descendants, specifically the cultural impacts of those historical events.

In New World Core, Shange specifically alludes to the slave trade of the “new world” and
how that influenced and created new communities and cultures. She focuses on the slave ship and
physical journey of the slave, when she says, “we boarded ships/… on the atlantic side of nicaragua
costa rica”. However, she continues this exploration by noting the ways in which this slave trade
continues to impact the world. In her words, “locked in depths of seas our spirits”, she is noting the
loss of physical life along the slave trade, but also the loss of a connection to much of the culture
and history that was associated with various communities in Africa. Further, this can allude to a
common practice among slave traders when they practiced appendage removal. This often
symbolized a loss of spirit for African slaves who practiced religions native to many communities
throughout West Africa, in which they believed that body parts housed the soul. This was a specific
exertion of power that dehumanized African slaves and contributed to the creation of slave societies
within the so called “new world”. This historical allusion not only highlights historical realities, but
also their implications as it criticizes the transatlantic slave trade as a means of erasure of culture for
millions of people.

Hagedorn explores the colonization of the Philippines in Souvenirs, specifically by the
Spanish, in her examination by pointing out physical manifestations of their colonialism, but then
nods to the deeper association of those actions with the current culture within the Philippines and
Filipino communities. For instance, she mentions the “spanish missionary/who raped [her] great-
grandmother”, but then she complicates this story by adding, “i asked him if he was god”. Throughout the poem, she specifically highlights how Christianity, specifically Catholicism was used as a tool in Spanish colonization. In this specific point, however, she is seemingly mocking the Spanish religion and the Spanish who were going against their own religious teaching. She highlights the hypocrisy and twisted duality of a missionary raping her great-grandmother by equating his actions and his exertion of power over her grandmother to god. This not only showcases the story of her grandmother but echoes the larger power exertion associated with Spanish colonialism. This also
shows the ways in which Christianity and aspects of Spanish culture infiltrated generations of
Filipinos, which she exemplifies in the use of words like “sanctity n piety” and “the virgin mary”
throughout the poem, when she is focusing on modern Filipino people. This word choice and the
repetition of these words is purposeful and is meant to show the past and current implications of
Spanish colonization in the Philippines, and how it has shifted Filipino culture.