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.

Comments ( 2 )

  1. Kim Hall
    Outstanding post Makeen! I am really fascinated by the top photo--it seems the policeman is black? Wondering what Shange saw in drawing attention to the policeman next to other black people at the site of protest. Also I am wondering if the picture of Savannah is taken by one of the Kamoinge group (or under their tutelage). It has a very similar look to some of the images from *Sweet Breath of Life*
  2. Thompson
    Makeen! This blog post is so cool. Thinking about the different ways Shange worked to communicate how she understood and filtered the world is really exciting and while she is of course known for so many things, dance, music, poetry etc. I never think about the other ways, that are not as heavily studied, she created new images for us to think about the world through. Thank you!

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