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The Worlds of Ntozake ShangeAND DIGITAL STORYTELLING

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shange for the people!

by Elizabeth 2 Comments

i realized that i wrote differently and more forcefully after

class / that the movements propelled the language and/or the

language propelled the dance / it is possible to start a phrase with

a word and end with a gesture / that’s how i’ve lived my life /

that’s how i continue to study / produce black art.

Reading “why i had to dance” so early in the semester was so important to my initial understanding of Shange. I came to the class knowing very little about her. I basically just knew that she’d written for colored girls and that she was a Barnard alumna. In these short pages, I felt like I learned so much about Shange- her passions, her family and upbringing, her love for dance, how she connects all of these aspects of her life and her art. In a way, I think of this as being an autobiography that allows us to learn about her as a person, rather than what you would see in a bio that would just include major life moments and accomplishments. This piece really provided me with the context on who Shange was that would be so crucial to my understanding of and connecting with her work throughout the rest of the semester. I can imagine that Barnard faculty (particularly those who may not know much about Shange beyond for colored girls) would really benefit from having this piece in the collection. This would provide everyone with an understanding of her life and work that could foreground later conversations, particularly since this collection of work will be focusing on texts outside of her most famous and well-known ones. The pieces does not only highlight the common themes of  dance, poetry, geography, race, and familial relations that are present in Shange’s writing, but it also emphasizes the way that Shange connecting these types of art.

Ntozake The Photographer | Archive Find #2 | Makeen

by Zachery 2 Comments

Ntozake Shange… the playwright, the poet, the author… AND the photographer!

In my last archive find post, I reveled about how captivated I was by Ntozake’s collection of photo albums more than anything else I explored in her collection. After many revisits, these photos continue to captivate me–-not solely because they are beautiful but also it truly feels like a privilege to see through Ntozake’s eyes.

 

This course is titled the Worlds of Ntozake Shange and Digital storytelling. We explore the worlds she creates through writing and performance, but what does it mean to consider the world that she lived in? What about this lived world of Ntozake Shange led her to create these, sometimes fictitious and other times not, worlds that we’ve had the joy of exploring through writing. To me, Ntozake’s photography provides a glimpse into Ntozake’s real world.

Photo at a Protest taken by Ntozake

Photo of an unidentified saxophonist, taken by Ntozake

 

Many of the photos present in the album feature a smiling Ntozake dolled up alongside other artists, at seemingly lavish galas/events. Some of them feature her alongside her family. The ones that are my favorite are ones that seem like snapshots of specific environments in which Ntozake found herself. Like the two above, these moments are not posed, it is not clear who they feature or where they were taken, but it feels as though we are able to see what Ntozake saw even if just a literal snapshot moment.

 

Photo of two unidentified people, taken by Ntozake

Photo of an unidentified woman taken by Ntozake

Some photos, like the last, are of people who are presumably friends of Ntozake–– some aware of being photographed or others just existing (like in the first photo here). Many like the baby photo featured here and those in my last archive find, are of Savannah throughout the years. Others are ones of Ntozake’s living room, or dining table–– of art on her walls, or plants in the corner. All of which, to different degrees, expose us to the world that for whatever reason encouraged Ntozake to birth worlds of her own.

Shange for the People! – Makeen

by Zachery 1 Comment

Ntozake Shange is for everyone, and her works are very intentional in being as accessible as possible. However, without the proper instruction in reading Shange, one could be easily overwhelmed due to the simple fact that Shange’s work is almost definitely different from anything they might have previously encountered.

 

For this reason, I would recommend that Barnard staff wishing to be involved with the #ShangeMagic Project first read this excerpt from Nappy Edges, specifically the first 4-5 pages. I recommend that they start on page two which reads: “if i asked: is this james brown or clifford jordan? you wd know.” and read until the top of page 6, stopping after the poem that begins with “the poet sees & hears the world. & there are many different worlds”

 

I selected this passage from the many others that we read this semester because I truly do believe it incapsulates/explains the many elements that are crucial to understanding Ntozake’s writings. This passage explains what Ntozake believes is the specific value of poetry. It exposes one to Ntozake’s use of language and punctuation (from the slashes to abbreviated words). Additionally, it features poetry alongside Ntozake’s own explanations of such poetry. This piece as a whole, looking specifically at this selected exceprt, serves as a wonderful introduction into Ntozake’s works in that it is almost as though Ntozake herself is telling you about what to expect and why you should listen to her.

A Play That Found Me and Loved Me Fiercely – Makeen

by Zachery 1 Comment

Oh For Colored Girls… how did you know that I needed you so?

Reading and seeing For Colored Girls were such uniquely incredible experiences for me. Reading it for class, I felt as though some parts resonated with me whereas others confused me. Seeing the play, witnessing the movements, hearing the language and other sounds helped to make concrete any confusion. There were moments that made me want to cry, some in which I laughed, others that made me think of specific moments of my life and even some that were foreign to me but through the performance were made clear. I truly could ramble endlessly about how wonderful an experience the play was, but for the sake of this post, I want to focus on my favorite parts of the play: the recurring elements of girlhood.

The play opened with the seven women storming the stage with a wave of song, dance, claps, jumps, and cheers. They played hand games, mimicked double-dutch, and laughed. Admittedly, this was the first moment that I wanted to cry–– not because there was any feeling of sadness but rather because I felt so seen. Almost immediately, before any lines had been delivered, I was forced to reflect. I thought back to when I might have played similar games, I thought back to when I had ever in my life seen a group of women of color simply having fun in any production; I could not think of any. To my pleasant surprise, these seemingly unstructured moments of joy and play were the ones that united each of the play’s poems. Sometimes accompanied by song, other times by stomps and claps, each of these moments evoked in me a desire to join in, a desire to play.

 

The production closed with a classic four-clap “no music” chant, which could not have been more fitting. The times in my life in which I’ve taken part in such a chant were always at the end of events/closing of spaces that I did not want to leave. This play was certainly one that I wanted to stay in for as long as possible. The women on stage and all of the Black girls/women around me kept up the “no music” chant until the house lights were turned on. The beauty of Black/brown women’s ability to make joy in the midst of pain, to play in the midst of hardship, to create music in the midst of silent was without a doubt the most profound element of For Colored Girls.