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

Phanesia Pharel

Thoughts on writing and working within the third world

by Phanesia Pharel 3 Comments

Before I begin my analysis of this week I want to take a moment to thank Shange for her impact on me. When I found out the woman who wrote For Colored Girls went to Barnard, my heart grew and when I met her for the first time I was so shocked. She brought an aura to the room. Her writings empowered me and she will be someone I look to empower and take care of myself. I have thought of her passing every day since and each day I think something new out of it. But today the quote that sticks with me the most is from my favorite playwright Suzan Lori Parks; “I saw Ntozake enter the room,” Ms. Parks said, “and I stood up, and the younger playwrights said, ‘What’s the matter? Why are you standing?’ And I said, ‘The queen has just entered the room.’ ” She is the closest thing the diaspora has to royalty, and I hope people let her know that. And I don’t think its simply because of what she gave us but I believe it is because she saw so much in herself as a black woman. Although there is so much her work has given this world, I feel blessed to be alive in a time where I can study and be close to it. And I hope to give her labor justice.

 

That being said, it has been very interesting to hear academic critique of various multi-ethnic, multi-racial and transnational feminist movements. Specifically in “Inter-and Transnational Feminist Theory and Practice in Triple Jeopardy and Conditions” where I initially had questions about how international and transnational movements worked in action. At a time where a woman could not get a credit card without being married in this country, were we allowed be traveling alone? Weird questions and although the article does not answer specifically it showed that even without iPhones and wifi these women used whatever they could to stay connected. It also raised questions for me of what we regard as “major” publishing as many of these groups had a large reach on people.  As much as this version of feminism adds to the nuance of history, it is still complicated and multi-faceted. For example, in one issue there is a woman working in a factory in inhumane conditions for the country that the other women in the issue live in. Does anyone have any examples of publishing where this might be seen today?

 

Mohanty, in Zed Press, points out that the concept of the “Third World Woman” is a further perpetuates colonialism. This is an interesting point, I mean take Puerto Rico, or Haiti or The Virgin Islands where the United States has had an imperialist presence whether or not it persists today. While much of the colonizing was happening was this important coalition building. Yet when I think about purely in an academic sense, the “third world woman” being seen as an additive is essential to the continuance of the American state. Further helping to perpetuate the elitist standard American academia holds over others. We have the 1st version of feminism white women, 2nd rate queer white women, 3rd rate women of color in America, 4th rate “3rd world women”. And many people buy into this narrative while Shange challenged it as an academic, artist and activist. Traveling the United States and building a coalition with many.

 

I have hope for the writing of women in the third world through literature, not academia. Take Edwidge Danticat for example, who was actually taught by Ntozake and Ntozake adored her. Being born and living in Haiti for quite some time she is put in an interesting experience but in her novel Krik, Krak. The women are shown as multi-faceted and not simply at the hands of their colonizers and oppressors.

“When you write, it’s like braiding your hair. Taking a handful of coarse unruly strands and attempting to bring them unity. Your fingers have still not perfected the task. Some of the braids are long, others are short. Some are thick, others are thin. Some are heavy. Others are light. Like the diverse women of your family. Those whose fables and metaphors, whose similes and soliloquies, whose diction and je ne sais quoi daily slip into your survival soup, by way of their fingers.”
― Edwidge Danticat, Krik? Krak!

Through Krik Krak the culture, humanity, and strength of women flourish in the midst of the trauma and pain. I really don’t think it has to be one or another.

 

Very often in Shange’s work, she connects the diaspora and speaks of many countries as a whole. But in the same way that this text critiques Audre Lorde, I worry that we do not critique Shange for the way she generalizes Latin American experiences as an African American woman. For example, there is almost an exotification of Haiti’s legacy as the first black nation and a dehumanizing link between the immense poverty and colonial history. Both are difficult but leave Haiti very little room to create a current legacy for itself. In Shange’s “A Black Night in Haiti, Palais National, Port-au-Prince, French is used to describe the experience she is having towards the end. In the poem she encounters rich whites, she becomes sickened by the level of poverty and sad.

“L’haiti a besoin (Haiti needs)

L’haiti a besoin/de la liberte/ l’egalite/ fraternite. (Hati needs liberty, equality, fraternity)

L’haiti/le premier pays au monde/ sans esclaves (Haiti the first country of people, were slaves)

L’haiti/ la nation de l’independance noire (Haiti a black independent country)

What is going on/ here?

Ou est dessalines/ maintenant (Where is Dessaline right now)

Ou est petition/ l’ouverture? ( And the petition!/ Toussaint Louverture)

Ou sont-ils qui peuvent nous aider a la liberte, l’egalite/ la fraternite (Who is going to be here to help us gain liberty, equality, and fraternity)

I use Haiti because it is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. In this poem, Ntozake uses French, not Haitian Kreyol to describe the country. While most Haitians do not speak French, on the island it is used as a tool to oppress others. Toussaint Louverture is not spelled in Kreyol, it is spelled in French. There is a gap between the Carribean and African American literature in America. I truly believe that America and the rest of the world only want to see blackness through an American lens which is why the hyphenated Carribean-Americans, latin-Americans receive more press than people who immigrate later in life and cannot blend in. It’s sad but this poem does further perpetuate a single view of the third world. Despite being well intended. This is Shange’s experience in Haiti, and it is valid but like anything else should be critiqued.

 

I don’t know the answers to the questions I feel these articles ask. Where is the line? Who defines the “third world”? Who works within the “third world”?

I will close with this poem. Staceyann Chinn is a Jamaican Lesbian who moved to Brooklyn later in life. I believe if she immigrated as a child her work would be better received but perhaps it wouldn’t be as radical.

 

la vie boheme

by Phanesia Pharel 1 Comment

In”Artistic Expression was Flowing Everywhere” Alison Mills and Ntozake Shamje, Black Bohemian Feminists in the 1970s . HARRYETTE MULLEN states “Claiming their place as a significant force in U.S. literature in the 1970s, African-American women writers faced difficult choices involving contradictory values within the ashifting terrain of political, cultural, and aesthetic movements”. This quote for me is great but I would argue that there has never been a time for black women in America to not face the damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario as artists.

 

Two weeks ago we lightly talked about the violence and anger placed on Shange when she did not portray black men in the way that certain people within the black community would have preferred a different portrayal on the real physical, emotional and mental abuse of black women, non binary and trans folxs in our communities. Yet I feel like this is a consistent theme black women face. From Suzan Lori Parks, to Jamaica Kincaid many black female writers in the modern age have been held under the microscope. Roxanne Gay, for example, is a complicated case. She is a bisexual Haitian American woman who grew up with financial privilege as well as being light-skinned but wrote texts about women being brutalized in Haiti. She received severe homophobia, fatphobic, biphobia, sexist and all around trash responses from people. How do we help these women and future writers who may fear brutality in a response to humanity?

I have never thought critically about Ntozake as a bohemian artist and perhaps this is because we’re raised to see black women as simply black female artists. And sure being a black woman comes with so much but there is freedom in being able to write and not think about certain things or not think about other people. Jamaica Kincaid has a really that if you’re going to be a black woman who writes don’t be a black female writer, and to me, this means to color the lines that you want to not necessarily the lines defined for black women.

Here is a bit from “An equation for black people onstage” by Suzan Lori Parks (pulitzer prize winning playwright)

Can a White person be present onstage and not be an oppressor? Can a Black person be onstage and be other than oppressed? For the Black writer, are there Dramas other than race dramas? Does Black life consist of issues other than race issues?

And gee, there’s another thing: There is no such thing as THE Black Experience; that is, there are many experiences of being Black which are included under the rubric. Just think of all the different kinds of African peoples…

So. As a Black person writing for theatre, what is theatre good for? What can theatre do for us? We can “tell it like it is;” “tell it as it was;” “tell it as it could be.” In my plays I do all 3; and the writing is rich because we are not an impoverished people, but a wealthy people fallen on hard times.

I write plays because I love Black people. As there is no single “Black Experience,” there is no single “Black Aesthetic” and there is no one way to write or think or feel or dream or interpret or be interpreted. As African-Americans we should recognize this insidious essentialism for what it is: a fucked-up trap to reduce us to only one way of being. We should endeavor to show the world and ourselves our beautiful and powerfully infinite variety.

 

So for Shange I think she reaches there, she explores bohemia and sure hers is black but its outside of the stereotypical reach. She allows black women to heal onstage in For Colored Girls which I also believe is not considered in the reach. Do we want to in the future allow discussions of Shange where we ask less of the demeaning “how did u as a negro writee and whyy (cuz everything is 4 your race). I think Shange’s work as stated by SLP is infinite, do we speak of it that way?

 

Excited to hear your thoughts 🙂

There is no perfect feminism

by Phanesia Pharel 1 Comment

I truly believe there is no perfect feminism. But there are feminisms that uplift more people than others. I always viewed second wave feminism as belonging to white women, I knew women of color were ignored but I had no idea women of color also mobilized with white women at that point. Becky Thompsons, “Multiracial Feminism: Recasting the Chronology of Second Wave Feminism” & Natalie Havlin, bring up so many valuable points. Starting with the erasure of early intersectionality and how women of color would work together but always want individuality. This all reminds me of the connections in the Caribbean. Growing up in Miami it seemed like Cubans, Haitians and other Caribbean people thrived separately. It wasn’t until my mother told me about her experiences and the closeness between these islands that I realized we had more to gain working together. But the erasure of our interconnected histories held me back from many valuable conversations. Another example of erasure is the fact that I did not find our Shirley Chislom ran for president until a few years ago, and it pissed me off and blew my mind. Why the fudgenuts did I not learn this in school? And as great as it is that we talk about it sometimes many forget that the black community and the woman’s movement left her behind. I also had no idea she was the first congresswoman.

 

As many great points as Becky thompson’s work makes, this text seems a little too optimistic. Yay! Women of color and white Jewish, queer and anti-racist women mobilized together in the past. But why are our communities more polarized and segregated in some parts of America and the world than ever before? 

 

This brings me to Chicanx feminism. This is a great example as well, while her studies on Cuba were amazing, to note the oppression of afro-cubans is so immense that I grew up in Miami a city built by Cubans and Haitians and met an Afro-Cuban when I was 19 years old. The proof is in who survived and was able to escape Castro. Cuba is often romanticized as a communist heaven but it’s important to remember certain things. There were camps that queer people disappeared and were taken to under Fidel Castro. This was not mentioned in her work at all. Another example of the severity of Cuba is when my violin coach saw her cousins cry when they walked into a supermarket for the first time, they had never seen so much food. I don’t feel like an accurate or nonbiased portrayal of Cuba was made here.

 

I say all of this to ask if it is possible to tell the whole story of a silenced community?

There are ups and downs but what was erased and what stayed in feminism? This is something I’d love to discuss with all of you.

For Colored Girls reminds me being nice is a scam.

by Phanesia Pharel 0 Comments

Wow. This week has been tough, very often on weeks like this I read For Colored Girls.

And I feel a little bit better.

The first time I saw For Colored Girls, I was at my states thespian festival and it really changed my life. I became obsessed with it, auditioned with monologues from it, and read it all the time. When I first saw it I felt so many things…I wanted to JUMP on the stage and perform these roles that felt so close to my heart, I wanted to scream (still do), and I dreamed of writing something so beautiful. There are too many passages in For Colored Girls that speak to me it almost feels like I have a personal relationship with the writer.

 

Lately, I have considered why I put energy into people being nice to me when half the time I just get demonized for being dark, poor and “nice”. Lately, I have been questioning why I am so nice to people who are actively ruining the lives of others without so little as a bat of the eye. In rereading “For Colored Girls” this poem JUMPED OUT OF THE ASHES and snatched my wig.

 

“i usedta live in the world
really be in the world
free & sweet talkin
good mornin & thank-you & nice day
uh huh
i cant now
i cant be nice to nobody
nice is such a rip-off
regular beauty & a smile in the street
is just a set-up”

 

Because here’s the thing. I cannot separate my experience from Shange’s work and in these posts. It’s just too hard and if its too much Professor Hall please let me know. When I read this poem I think about the men who have projected violence onto me despite my kindness. I think about a lot of people who I have been nice to and have used it as an excuse to tear me down…and I am not alone.

 

When they have no real critique they tell us we aren’t being nice enough. Look at Serena, she is arguably the greatest tennis player of all time and her reputation was placed on the line for not being “nice” enough. For not being respectable. But I’m sure Serena was nice when she almost lost her life because the medical industry continuously ignores black women.

 

I have been told to watch what I say, from my parents to my teachers and even mentors. If I say the wrong thing it could come back to hurt me in the form of a career. But my silence on the abuse of others is retroactively hurting others and the silence and “kindness” of black women is the same.

 

Think of the “Mammy”. The good old American minstrel figure of a black woman there to be kind and nurse the colonizer. Often praised for her sense of worth the Mammy has no mobility to critique the system that oppresses her as long as she seeks that approval. It’s as Shange states…”A set up”. 

 

Here’s an idea:

 

Being nice should include not trapping women, trans and non binary folxs in a system set to place them at the bottom.

Being nice should mean caring about the planet and not giving up on saving it and ending world hunger and exploitation.

Being NICE should be having a world where black women don’t have to take a class about a playwright they connect to on many levels but the base of it being able to vocalize a trauma that they may have not had the experience to in unsafe spaces.

 

 

Image result for lorde

Here’s a video of Lorde explaining why she doesn’t smile. She has faced immense misogyny and serves as a vehicle of rage for young women. We stan!!

 

 

I am so excited to talk about this play. So thankful for this class.

 

Nappy edges

by Phanesia Pharel 0 Comments

Anita Hill

 

She’s the only thing I can think about. How white women are surprised by the lack of justice their country is giving them but they forget if there is no justice for Anita there can’t be any for Mrs. Ford.

 

I am so sad.

 

I think every woman has been a survivor of sexual violence in one way or another and especially women of color who for many of us our lives wouldn’t be possible without rape.

Ntozake creates a world where we call men out on their bullshit. It’s a really scary and hard pill to swallow but I’m so happy she made it.

There are many moments of sexual reclamation and happiness in these pieces. The happiness I would say that exist while she is with men. That is something that does perplex me, how horrible men are but we can still enjoy them.

I had no idea until her visit that Shange had a Phd. in Nappy Edges she pulls from the best part of academia really pulling apart pieces of work and critiquing them greatly. Placing music and poetry together an intertwining them delicately.

 

This excerpt from “I talk to myself” at least for me serves as a tool. It is Shange’s weapon and she’s passing it down to you and me!

It’s going from “I didn’t take care of myself the way I cd have had  I known I waz worth loving.” (December 1977 Ms. Magazine) to writing poems.

 

I am going to revisit a previous thought. In “Nappy Edges” Shange writes

 

“if we don’t know the voice of a writer/the way we know “oh that’s trane”/ something is very wrong. we are unfortunately/ selling ourselves down river again”

 

We cannot lose her words. I am afraid we already have. I am afraid beyond the walls of Barnard people with nappy edges aren’t hearing their poems.

I tried finding research on preserving art while climate change is happening and I found nothing, perhaps that should change. No one thinks about preserving art before a war and before we know it so much is lost. Thank goodness for the archives.

 

reflection on Shange’s visit

by Phanesia Pharel 1 Comment

I have listened to Ms. Shange speak twice and both times there has been this air around her. She truly has power.

I have been questioning the idea of humanity lately. It doesn’t seem to be possible in a world like the one we live in. Somehow in her work, I find there is meaning in the world. I think Shange has the superpower of healing or at least alleviating pain with her words.

The thing I take the most away with me is despite the sadness I felt when she could not imagine a blackness without oppression, I cannot recall Shange inviting sadness into the world with her words. I truly believe her presence challenges oppression. It’s a gift.

The poem that has stuck the most with me from Wild Beauty is
“A word is a miracle”

A word is a miracle
just letters that somehow wind up
clumsy fingers/ with meaning
my life was inarticulate
no one knew what I meant
I cd capture no beauty or wistful memory
a word on a blank page, though
that is triumphant
infinite illusion/ hard core fact
of this messy world where
whole cities are poisoned and my universe
is an error a word
beckoning jihadis/ blessing lepers
urging revolutions, a smile.
a miracle of sound
to be cherished

Millions of species are going extinct and the human race might become one of them. I think what makes me sad is the idea of Shange’s legacy that she writes of wanting in the prologue of “Wild Beauty” not lasting. Poetry is one thing that separates us from every other species. At least poetry as we know it. The world and Shange’s legacy is in very clumsy fingers.

“Of Woman Born” A response by Phanesia Pharel

by Phanesia Pharel 0 Comments

“There is much to suggest that the male mind has always been haunted by the force of the idea of dependence on a woman for life itself, the son’s constant effort to assimilate, compensate for, or deny that he is “of woman born.”

 

This quote stood out to me for many reasons. When watching the entire canon of literary work it seems that humanity is haunted by the woman. From the role of Eve in the Bible as an evil seductress who is punished through motherhood, to the entire genre of film noir, it is clear that men are scared. One of my favorite lines of a Kehlani song, a queer biracial singer, who with no doubt has been inspired by Shange is “And I know every man has a fear of a strong-minded woman, but I say she’s a keeper if she keeps it all runnin.” And although, I agree with this quote and I feel that men in many of my personal interactions have tried to make me smaller out of fear of the power I possess as a dark-skinned black lavender goddess. The complexity of trans men being able to, and having given birth is one we must remember. Not every “female” body is one that holds a woman. This entire article is overwhelmingly cis, and even within Ntozake’s work, I question how trans and nonbinary individuals feel about the portrayal of womanhood. I also understand that not every literary source needs to be relatable to every person.

 

“Terms like “barren” or “childless” have been used to negate any further identity. The term “nonfather” does not exist in any realm or social categories.

 

I remember as a child, my parents whoa re still married were separated at one point. My father told me frankly that he felt he lost a part of his life marrying my mother. My father, who at this point had left me at home for months, was absent and had a life of his own from my perspective. While my mother was tethered to me, and although I faced abandonment by both of my parents. My father has never been blamed for anything that has gone wrong in our lives from my extended family. Growing up, I expected nothing but the worst of men. When I was thirteen, I attended my friend Hilda’s birthday party and I could tell her father was a good man who loved her mother dearly. I immediately romanticized this man and in the future any man who did the bare minimum of what was expected of a woman. I have slowly learned that by watching women like my mother, like myself with PCOS and other conditions that make childbirth difficult how little respect we truly have for women. For men, they are not vessels of childbirth. That’s just a fact. But women? We are USELESS until we succumb to being baby makers. This speech by Tracee Ellis Ross was a moment where I realized I might not want to have children, I might not ACTUALLY want to get married, or base my value on these things. And it’s really hard and confusing to ask these questions. I am going to pull this back to Shange, from one of my favorite moments of “For Colored Girls”.

FOR COLORED GIRLS EXCERPT

“but bein alive & bein a woman & bein colored is a metaphysical

dilemma/ i havent conquered yet/ do you see the point

my spirit is too ancient to understand the separation of soul & gender/ my love is too delicate to have thrown back on my face

 

my love is too delicate to have thrown back on my face

 

my love is too beautiful to have thrown back on my face

 

my love is too sanctified to have thrown back on my face

 

my love is too magic to have thrown back on my face

 

my love is too Saturday nite to have thrown back on my face

 

my love is too complicated to have thrown back on my face

 

my love is too music to have thrown back on my face”

 

The first time I heard this I cried. I thought about all the love I offer people and how so often I don’t feel there are people there who care for me. In connection to Tracee’s words (which are straight lineage from Shange, I mean cmon shes a trained actress from Brown), I think “My life is my own” and “My love is too/ to be thrown back in my face” all connect to the same thing. Loving ourselves, recognizing our worth and doing the demanding work of taking care of ourselves. I started in one place and I resulted in another. Please bear with me, its how my mind works and a sign of growth I think. This week has been a helpful reminder. Thank you so much. I am so excited to discuss all of this.