Ntozake and Savannah Shange (PBS screenshot)
i can’t count the number of times i have viscerally wanted to attack deform n maim the language that i waz taught to hate myself in/ the language that perpetuates the notions that cause pain to every black child as he/she learns to speak of the world & the “self” (LLS 19).
in everything I have ever written & everything I hope to write/ i have made use of what Frantz Fanon called “combat breath” (LLS 19).
In the interstices of language lie powerful secrets of the culture.
—Adrienne Rich, Of Woman Born
. . . a woman who can believe in herself, who is a fighter, and who continues to struggle to create a livable space around her, is demonstrating to her daughter that these possibilities exist
—Adrienne Rich, Of Woman Born (247)
I wanted to tell you a bit about why we are reading Fanon and Rich today. (The readings are now linked to the appropriate week on the syllabus–and we will have presentations from Elizabeth and Anna Bella!) Shange reads so widely that we could spend an entire semester reading her identified influences from Ngugi wa T’iongo and Edouard Glissant to Judy Grahn and Jessica Hagedorn. Fanon’s influence as you will see below, is pretty obvious in Shange’s thoughts about breath and Read More