Ntozake, Healing, and Spoken Word Poetry
“somebody/ anybody sing a black girl’s song bring her out to know herself to know you but sing her rhythms carin/ struggle/ hard times sing her song of life she’s been dead so long closed in silence so long she doesn’t know the sound of her own voice her infinite beauty she’s half-notes scattered without rhythm/ no tune sing her sighs sing the song of her possibilities sing a righteous gospel let her be born let her be born & handled warmly.”
The silence that Ntozake Shange speaks about in this post is one that I believe for so many people is combated by dance, movement and/or spoken word poetry.
The idea that action paired with words builds a door that it’s ok to walk through. This is also something that music is capable of providing for people. This door is the portal to the allowance of healing. There are several videos online of Shange reading poems out loud. But, also if you look at certain styles of writing/grammar techniques there are ways to differentiate “spoken word” for “page poetry”… What do you consider your or Shange’s way of telling the audience if the work requires a voice or only eyes to access it full potential.