Archive Find! – Ndikko Journal Entry

I’ve been getting very caught up in so much academic jargon, so for my archive task I wanted to go back to the original roots of my interest — Shange herself.

I had seen this journal entry earlier last fall, but at that point I quickly moved on because I was searching  for a piece of Shange within the archive that resonated with my project. Stumbling upon this journal entry again reminds me that within all our projects and all our research the chief task we carry is to fulfill the occupation of storyteller. We must weave together distant echoes, pure evidence, slang from generations back, and art from magazines present to create a narrative we can visually depict.

This journal entry is one of the purest forms of narrative. It is a story that is two very short pages long with a hard hitting ending bestowing readers with wise, romantic advice. Something about this entry that stood out to me was the naming Shange incorporates: Ndikko as the title and character Themsa, or perhaps Themda who is instead called Benjami.

This work reminds me of the beauty of artists’ quests and the serenity of artistic responses, creations, evocations. Even with the uniqueness of these names Shange is reaching out and incorporating other cultures.

All that said,

“Love is costly as it is beautiful”

… Art is costly as it is beautiful.

… …Liberty is costly as it is beautiful.

Internationalism is costly as it is beautiful.

But hopefully the cost is no comparison to the solidarity and wide spread fight that can come from the mingling of culture and peoples.

I found this journal entry from in the Archives at Barnard College; it is part of the Ntozake Papers and is listed on the Shange Papers Inventory Sheet/ Finding aid.  At this time I do not believe this item has any metadata. To my knowledge many of the journals in this collection have not been published digitally. It’s possible that I am the first or part of the few people to digitize this Ndikko entry. Though I could have snapped a photo of this entry myself, I asked for the reproduction to be made by an archivist for the sake of quality. I have permission to take the picture and use the entry because I am enrolled in a course that has partnered with the Barnard Archive and follows all guidelines dictated by the organization.