I utilized the Barnard Archives in my research. I searched the Shange Papers for journals and manuscripts of her books. Mainly, I focused on Box #5 of her journals and notebooks. I found the items through the Draft Guide to the Ntozake Shange Papers created by Shannon O’Neill. I was compelled to search through notebooks and journals as I speculated that they would provide insight about Shange’s process as it pertains to her writing, cooking, and directing.
The materials that I found were interesting for what they did not reveal. Physically, the journals were very diverse. The journals were from different places in the world, made of different kinds of paper, and of different sizes. The journals were mostly sparse– revealing a sprinkling of important dates, speeches, menus for shared meals, and guest lists but filled mostly with empty, crinkled, and waterlogged but dried pages. There would be a lot of activity for a dozen pages and then the rest of the journal would be empty.
I could infer something about Shange’s process from the physicality and content of the journals or I could look more into her directors notes in the manuscripts of her plays and the editors notes in her books. I wasn’t frustrated with the task as it revealed that I would need to look deeper into the archive which I look forward to doing!