“lemme love you just like i am/ a colored girl/ i’m finally bein real/ no longer symmetrical & impervious to pain” – Shange Mixtape Request
A strong addition to the Shange Mixtape, in my opinion, would be the Lady in Purple’s no more love poem in for colored girls. I offer this poem specifically because of it’s way of highlighting a certain vulnerability and humanity from the colored women along with Shange’s preoccupation with music and it’s connection to love. At it’s base the Lady in Purple is professing the most raw form of her love to a partner that saw her outside of her “tricks” and got to experience her as who she was. This is currently my favorite poem within for colored girls because of the stinging realness of lines like,
“i am really colored & really sad sometimes & you hurt me
more than i ever danced outta/ into oblivion isnt far enuf
to get outta this/” (Shange, 16)
” & i cdnt let you in on it cuz i didnt know/ here
is what i have/ poems/ big thighs/ lil tits/ &
so much love/ will you take it from me this one time/
please this is for you/” (Shange, 16)
“i want you to love me/ let me love you/ i dont wanna
dance wit ghosts/ snuggle lovers i made up in my drunkenness/
lemme love you just like i am/ a colored girl/ i’m finally bein
real/ no longer symmetrical & impervious to pain” (Shange, 16)
The beauty of this poem lies in the unabashed vulnerability of the Lady in Purple and Shange in the delivery of these lines. With tropes such as the “Strong Black Woman” and “Magical Black Girl” permeating our imaginations of who Black women are and what we can do, it’s easy to overlook our inherent humanity. Shange insists on this foregrounding our complete right to humanity and vulnerability throughout for colored girls, but in an especially poignant fashion in this poem. I would include this poem in The Shange Mixtape to provide new readers a glimpse of the beauty within expressions of vulnerability and Shange’s ability to write in a fashion that can pull at our deepest emotions.
Works Cited:
Shange, Ntozake. “for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf (for colored girls)” Alexander Street. 1975. 2-25. Black Drama Database. Web.
