Archives and poetry and dinner . . O my!

by Kim Hall 11 Comments

To prepare for Shange’s visit, you should read

  • Ntozake Shange, From Okra to Greens: A Different Kinda Love Story  in A Daughter’s Geography
  • Edouard Glissant, excerpts from Caribbean Discourse and A Poetics of Relation
  • SKIM Spyra, Ania. “Ntozake Shange’s Multilingual Poetics of Relation.” Contemporary Literature 54.4 (2013): 785–809.

In the comments, please put your questions and let me know if you will CANNOT stay for the dinner or the Friday session.

Here’s our schedule:

Thursday, 22 October–Sulzburger, North Tower

  • 4:10-6pm Session with Shannon Miller–this is a hands-on workshop using materials from the Ntozake Shange collection. (Ntozake will be in attendance)
  • 6:00-7:30 Dinner and conversation with Ntozake, From Okra to Greens (we are supplying water. If you want something livelier, bring it with you.)

Friday, 23 October–Barnard Hall 101 (BCRW conference room)

  • 10:00am – noon, Discussion with Ntozake Shange (coffee and doughnuts)
    • we’ll start with Sydney asking questions about movement and then it will be open

Comments ( 11 )

  1. Sophia
    I'm sorry for getting to this a little late. I actually can't come to either because I am in a play Thursday night and I have work on Friday. I am very saddened by this and hope it will be filmed.
    • Kim Hall
      Oh no--but congratulations. Michelle/IMATS is filming Friday. BTW, if there are no calendly appointments open, send me three times that might work for you for meeting.
  2. Yemi
    Hello Professor Hall! I am able to make it for all of the session tonight and will arrive early to meet Shange at the Barnard gates. However, on Friday I have a meeting with a professor in the morning, so I will arrive at that session at about 10:30 am. For this reason, I won't be able to pick Shange up that morning. Thank You, --- Yemisi
    • Kim Hall
      Thanks for letting me know Yemi! See you soon.
  3. Yemi
    Some questions I have for Shange: I understand that the weight of your work comes from documenting the position and experience of the black woman in america, however, did you ever try to incorporate the African, afro-cuban, multi-ethnic perspective (those perspectives other than the african-american) into your work? Did you follow a specific methodology when writing? Or is part of your process giving yourself the freedom to unleash your pen in whatever form: poetry, prose, choreopoem? Is there a body of work that you haven't published? Did you look for your lady in red, in green, in brown?
    • Kim Hall
      Yemi, can you clarify what you mean by "perspectives"? since we have evidence in the texts that Shange incorporates afro-cuban, multi-ethnic languages/experiences (multilinguiism in *A Daughter's Geography, *For Colored Girls*, "“porque to no me’entrende? whatcha mean you can’t understand me?” (this is also noted in the criticism Vanessa Valdes essay and the Spyra essay for this week), maybe you want to reframe this--do you want to ask about African women? About the importance of multi-ethnic coalition in arts and activism?" About what it means to incorporate a variety of "perspectives" rather than her own voice? I like the idea of asking her about her [former] writing process--that might help illuminate things we see in the archive-- because of the health issues, she is not 'writing' in the same way. Not sure I'm following this one: "Did you look for your lady in red, in green, in brown?"
  4. Nicole
    Questions for Shange: What was your experience like as a woman involved with the Black Arts Movement? What kind of support was available to you as an artist of the movement? The Black Arts Movement had a specific ideal and goal for black arts, did you ever feel restricted by the group's ideologies?
  5. Danielle
    Questions for Shange: A Daughter's Geography and From Okra to Greens were published in the midst of the Official English and English Only movements--to what extent/were these multilingual choreopoems a response to the nationalistic and homogenizing movements? How do the multilingual narratives in your work combat homogenizing language and voices in the US?
  6. Michelle
    Questions for Shange: I am interested in your work on "bringing languages together without blending them" (Spyra 789). What were some of your inspirations or models that influenced the way that you include English / Spanish / French / your own language into your poems? I am interested in hearing this response in relation to Danielle's question on the English Only Movements and the push for multiculturalism.
  7. Nadia
    Availability: I can make it to dinner tonight, but I will be at an MMUF meeting tomorrow morning so I won't be able to make the Friday morning discussion. Question for Shange: What is truth for you and how do you define it in your work?
  8. Clarke
    I can make it to dinner tonight, but I will be attending the MMUF meeting with Nadia during the Friday session. My question is related to her use of Portuguese and references to Afro-Brazilian culture: When I studied abroad in Salvador, I was struck by my Anglophone identity (the way I speak, move, express myself, dress, etc.) at first because it forced me to acknowledge my isolation, but later because it forced me to genuinely examine myself and my distinct experience within the Diaspora. In attempting to create a "New World form of expression" as a "third world writer" (Spyra), how does Shange reconcile the real differences in culture and individual experience that exist across the Americas, while still pointing to a shared experience of oppression? Particularly in relation to her experience in Brazil, how does Shange approach her Anglophone privilege in her use of other languages in her work? How does my literal inability to participate meaningfully in elements of Afro-Brazilianess (eating foods I'm allergic to, inability to understand Portuguese fluently, inability to samba, etc.) interrupt the idea of "third worldism"?

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