Header Image - The Worlds of Ntozake Shange
The Worlds of Ntozake ShangeAND DIGITAL STORYTELLING

Retracing Roots

by Dayna Beatty 2 Comments

Ntozake shared the stories of the women in her life that taught her what it means to be a strong, independent woman. Coming away from her talk, I felt a renewed sense of appreciate for the women in my life. I went home from that talk realizing two powerful forces that have affected me—my mother and my education. But what struck me most from Ntozake’s talk was the need to reflect on the village that works together to bring each of those forces to fruition.

 

My mother is one of the strongest women I know. At age 16 she made a personal decision that I could not even imagine making as a full grown, adult woman. At age 25 she left the only country she’d ever known to come to America to build an entirely new life for herself. She raised my brother and I to be humble and appreciative for everything we have, because she gave up everything to give it to us. And now, past the age of fifty, my mother has become the most solid force in my life. It is thanks to her that I found the strength to make some of the most challenging decisions and get through the most difficult of times. It is thanks to her that I know what a strong woman looks like—someone who isn’t afraid to step outside the lines and create her own path.

 

My education is very much the same way. After hearing Ntozake talk, I felt incredibly lucky to be apart of a community of women that has such a strong sense of legacy. From her mention of the panty raids, to the contemporary activism I see on campus today, I realize how proud I am to call Barnard College my home. Through this institution, I have discovered myself. I have learned how to be like the woman who raised me. I have learned that there is nothing more powerful than a woman with a mission on her mind—because I see that around me every day.

 

Ntozake’s advice was to reach out to the communities that have helped shape us, and use the gift of this education we receive to affect change. In the days since Ntozake’s talk, I’ve been making a daily conscious effort to do this. I share articles, stories, and lessons I’ve learned in classes with my mother. I ask her to share these with her network of women who have supported her. I have begun to write a letter to my mother’s mother, something I never imagined I’d be able to do because my tongue speaks a different language than hers does. Using mangled hiragana letters, dictionaries, and elementary-grade vocabulary, I’ve managed to piece together a paragraph written in my own words. For the first time in my life, I’m taking the steps to communicate with a role-model in my life who, up until now, I’ve only been able to speak with through other people. I’m learning the power of my own voice, through inspiration from Ntozake. In thinking of a final project, I’d like to incorporate my heritage as a first-generation American on my mom’s side and my bi-racial identity into whatever I choose to produce as my culminating assignment for this course.

the journey of self love, tenderness, and fulfillment

by Tirzah Anderson 1 Comment

 

In December of 2017, I, a 17-year-old first-year in college went to a SZA concert. Of course, I hada list of my favorite songs from ctrl. Not on that list was “Garden (Say it Like Dat)”, because I perceived the song to be about a lover fulfilling a woman and assuring her. However, during the concert, SZA explained the true importance of the song, as she revealed that the song was an ode to herself. She wrote the song to confirm herself, assure herself, and most importantly love herself.  In reading “nappy edges” I immediately thought of this song as I found similar themes throughout “nappy edges” when Shange described the relationship that the women in these poems developed within themselves.

Throughout “nappy edges” Shange notes the importance of the self in finding happiness, love, and appreciation. She specifically outlines this at the end of “resurrection of the daughter”, where Shange wrote

” she wd find someone who cd survive tenderness

she wd feed someone who waz in need of her fruits “

 

Later, Shange then wrote,

 

” & she waz last seen in the arms of herself

blushing

having come to herself ”

 

These quotes showcase the ways in which the woman in the poem was able to feed herself with love, provide herself with tenderness, and love herself, which ultimately led to her own identity and her own livelihood. This subject was able to support herself and found that she, herself, was “in need of her fruit” and “could survive tenderness”. Thus, she was able to fully appreciate what she could offer as support and was able to utilize those strengths for herself.

Self-love and appreciation are integral to finding one’s own identity and being comfortable in oneself, which is something highlighted by both Shange within “nappy edges” and by SZA in “Garden (Say It Like Dat).

 

A Friend is Hard to Press Charges Against

by Breana Beaudreault 2 Comments

What I found most interesting about Shange’s introduction for the second edition of For Colored Girls, along with her insights about what has changed since its first publication, is the way that the public received her attitude towards men. Unfortunately, all too often, pieces of academic work, theory, even spaces that are women-centered are seen less as works toward revolutionary change, brave spaces, or amplifying voices that aren’t heard, and instead, the automatic assumption is misandry at its core. I agree with what she said; often the males portrayed in her book are healthy portrayals of black men. However, it is endlessly frustrating that when women detail in any way the ways they have to suffer, are pushed into discomfort and are silenced, it becomes a personal problem for each man, rather than pointing to a larger systematic problem that places multiple oppressions on women of color, even more so than black men. There is one particular part of the poem that really hit a nerve this week with the events of the past week. In this part, Shange details one of the main fears that many sexual harassment and assault victims face of being written off and remaining unheard, particularly if you have any interaction with the male. In fact, according to the CDC, an devastating 54% of rape cases go unreported because of this likely compounding on other event-related traumas. Even worse, in some states, there has to be evidence of kicking, biting, or scratching to show that you have resisted. Its the same feeling that Shange discusses because, though men are clearly unwilling to take responsibility for the ills of their ilk, they need to understand the ways these violences against women play out. It almost hurt to read the poem, because some of this rhetoric was the kind that played out during the Kavanaugh trial. “A rapist is always a stranger /to be legitimate /someone you never saw / a man wit obvious problems”. Kavanaugh presented, to the population that wanted to see this in him, as a man with no problems, as he was well educated and up for such a high-power job. Because Blasey-Ford had been at a party with Kavanaugh, likely knew him, the undertones of the questions directed at her were synthesized into Shange’s words when she said “a misunderstanding /you know /these things happen/are you sure / you didn’t suggest / had you been drinking”. It hurts to hear these words from the late 70s still being used as grounds for dismissing a woman, even a white woman, even a well-educated and very composed woman, a woman in our eyes that had every quality that would set her up for credibility rather than dismissal. This topic is heavy on our hearts right now, as evidenced by the demonstration on alma mater after the senate hearing.

For Colored Girls and #MeToo

by Brianna Sturkey 1 Comment

For Colored Girls is a classic, timeless, and moving master piece (and those are only the words I can fathom, if I am being forced to describe her work). Shange hits the nail on the head on so many topics that are taboo in the Black community such as abortion, rape, isolation, self discovery, and so much more. The part that hit the nail on the head for me was when the Lady in Red talks about rape saying ” women relinquish all personal rights/the presence of a man/who apparently cd be considered a rapist.” Two names come to mind after initially reading this quote. Anita Hill. Christine Blasey Ford. These two women had “relinquished all personal rights” to their lives, stories, and peace of mind the moment they came forward with their stories of sexual assault against powerful men. Both these women, Black and White, were shamed endlessly in the public eye and started social movements that brought the issues of rape and sexual harassment to the forefront of the American consciousness. However, “these men friends of [thiers]/ who smile nice/ stay employed.” This line is the most heartbreaking in Shange’s work, because it the truest. Men who smile nice and have power and influence will always remain employed, regardless of the trauma they cause. This happened with Clarence Thomas and now with Brett Kavanaugh. This cycle, 27 years apart, is a tale as old as time that criss crosses every racial and ethnic boundary. For Colored Girls is the #MeToo movement and the #MeToo movement is For Colored Girls. These two things are not separate and this is a radical and important connection to be made. Shange’s work not only liberates the agony that Black women often suffer in silence, she is also inadvertently pushing freedom for every woman regardless of race.

For Colored Girls reminds me being nice is a scam.

by Phanesia Pharel 0 Comments

Wow. This week has been tough, very often on weeks like this I read For Colored Girls.

And I feel a little bit better.

The first time I saw For Colored Girls, I was at my states thespian festival and it really changed my life. I became obsessed with it, auditioned with monologues from it, and read it all the time. When I first saw it I felt so many things…I wanted to JUMP on the stage and perform these roles that felt so close to my heart, I wanted to scream (still do), and I dreamed of writing something so beautiful. There are too many passages in For Colored Girls that speak to me it almost feels like I have a personal relationship with the writer.

 

Lately, I have considered why I put energy into people being nice to me when half the time I just get demonized for being dark, poor and “nice”. Lately, I have been questioning why I am so nice to people who are actively ruining the lives of others without so little as a bat of the eye. In rereading “For Colored Girls” this poem JUMPED OUT OF THE ASHES and snatched my wig.

 

“i usedta live in the world
really be in the world
free & sweet talkin
good mornin & thank-you & nice day
uh huh
i cant now
i cant be nice to nobody
nice is such a rip-off
regular beauty & a smile in the street
is just a set-up”

 

Because here’s the thing. I cannot separate my experience from Shange’s work and in these posts. It’s just too hard and if its too much Professor Hall please let me know. When I read this poem I think about the men who have projected violence onto me despite my kindness. I think about a lot of people who I have been nice to and have used it as an excuse to tear me down…and I am not alone.

 

When they have no real critique they tell us we aren’t being nice enough. Look at Serena, she is arguably the greatest tennis player of all time and her reputation was placed on the line for not being “nice” enough. For not being respectable. But I’m sure Serena was nice when she almost lost her life because the medical industry continuously ignores black women.

 

I have been told to watch what I say, from my parents to my teachers and even mentors. If I say the wrong thing it could come back to hurt me in the form of a career. But my silence on the abuse of others is retroactively hurting others and the silence and “kindness” of black women is the same.

 

Think of the “Mammy”. The good old American minstrel figure of a black woman there to be kind and nurse the colonizer. Often praised for her sense of worth the Mammy has no mobility to critique the system that oppresses her as long as she seeks that approval. It’s as Shange states…”A set up”. 

 

Here’s an idea:

 

Being nice should include not trapping women, trans and non binary folxs in a system set to place them at the bottom.

Being nice should mean caring about the planet and not giving up on saving it and ending world hunger and exploitation.

Being NICE should be having a world where black women don’t have to take a class about a playwright they connect to on many levels but the base of it being able to vocalize a trauma that they may have not had the experience to in unsafe spaces.

 

 

Image result for lorde

Here’s a video of Lorde explaining why she doesn’t smile. She has faced immense misogyny and serves as a vehicle of rage for young women. We stan!!

 

 

I am so excited to talk about this play. So thankful for this class.

 

i’m not sorry

by Onyekachi Iwu 1 Comment

Image result for sorry beyonce

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxsmWxxouIM

One of my favorite poems from For Colored Girls is the poem “sorry”. MAN I wish this poem wasn’t so damn relatable. I literally found myself laughing out loud. I love the way Shange personifies the “sorry”, stating “I got sorry greeting me at my front door” and how she can’t even open her closet without the empty “sorries” of men spilling out at her feet. I think I also appreciate the specificity of it. As a queer woman who dates men, being begrudgingly “apologized” to, only for that “apology” being followed by the same exact behavior the falling week is such a specific and painful experience I never thought about before. It’s so validating how Shange was able to give space for that, and the specific experiences we need to heal from lackluster love from men.

 

you were always inconsistent

doin somethin & then bein sorry

beatin my heart to death!

talkin bout you sorry well,

i will not call,

i’m not goin to be nice,

i will raise my voice,

& scream & holler

& break things & race the engine

& tell all your secrets bout yourself to your face

& i will list in detail everyone of my wonderful lovers

& their ways i will play oliver lake loud!

& i  wont be sorry for none of it

 

The poem discusses how no matter men’s violence, when they do apologize, it’s not in a place to heal the situation or help progress the relationship. Instead, it is usually a silencing tactic. It’s a word that crosses its arms, waiting by the door for immediate forgiveness and forgetfulness. There is an expectation that you must do the work to forgive and heal alone, and to expect for him to do this work with you is asking for too much.

 

This poem immediately reminded me of Beyonce’s song “Sorry” from her Lemonade Album.

 

Now you want to say you’re sorry

Now you want to call me crying

Now you gotta see me wilding

Now I’m the one that’s lying

And I don’t feel bad about it

It’s exactly what you get

Stop interrupting my grinding

I ain’t thinking ’bout you

 

In “Sorry” by Beyonce, she repeats multiple times how she’s not “sorry” for her behavior (staying out late, spending time with her girls, and dancing). Unlike the men in Shange’s poem, she will not give an empty sorry to follow her behavior. She argues that her lover has driven her to this point, after making her miserable, waiting late for him, and having him lie to her constantly—”beatin her heart to death” as Shange puts it. Beyonce assures him multiple time “i ain’t thinkin bout you”, similar to Shange’s “I will not call” and “i will be sorry for none of it” assertion. The song is about Beyonce celebrating her own company and her companionship with other women in place of the empty companionship from a men. The video has groups of women dancing, carefree and unbothered, reminding me of images of Shange.

 

 

 

Ntozake Visit and Reflecting on Mother/Daughterhood

by Tirzah Anderson 0 Comments

In reflecting upon our visit with Ntozake, I find myself thinking of mothering. Although that may not have been the main topic of discussion for our conversations with her, I cannot help but think of my own mother after the visit. Ntozake’s work often centers a type of motherhood, not always biological in nature, and after meeting her, I felt a need to call my mom and talk to her about my experience. When I called my mother, after sending her a few photos and a video of Ntozake addressing my mom, her only response was “You are blessed”.

For me, my experience meeting with Ntozake centered me back into the ways that my mother first introduced me to her work and the conversations that I have had with my own mother surrounding identity and the ways that our identities change our experiences in the world. My own mother influences the way I see Ntozake’s work and the way I understand my own lived experiences, so I wanted to share this experience with her as much as possible, because I know if she was granted with the opportunity to meet with Ntozake so openly she would utilize and appreciate it fully.

It is also important to note that although her work focuses on motherhood and ideas of mothering often, it is not just content of her work that highlights ideas of motherhood, but also the ways in which her work is intergenerational and can bring common ground to “mothers” and “daughters”, not only biological ones, but relationships that are created from commonality and experience.

 

 

Ntozake, Hagedorn, and Histories

by Tirzah Anderson 0 Comments

Shange and Hagedorn’s writings are similar, not just in style and in their use of language to
induce an experience for the reader, but in their criticisms of colonization and exertion of power,
which they highlight through the use of allusions to history. As a Filipina, Jessica Hagedorn, focuses
on the Spanish colonization of the Philippines. Similarly, Ntozake Shange, focuses on the ways in
which historical actions including slavery and colonization have impacted various Black
communities, globally. Through their allusions to history, the reader is able to gain an understanding
of the ways in which each work is indicative of actual physical experiences, but also the ways in
which the author expands on those experiences and delves into the impacts of those experiences on
individuals and their descendants, specifically the cultural impacts of those historical events.

In New World Core, Shange specifically alludes to the slave trade of the “new world” and
how that influenced and created new communities and cultures. She focuses on the slave ship and
physical journey of the slave, when she says, “we boarded ships/… on the atlantic side of nicaragua
costa rica”. However, she continues this exploration by noting the ways in which this slave trade
continues to impact the world. In her words, “locked in depths of seas our spirits”, she is noting the
loss of physical life along the slave trade, but also the loss of a connection to much of the culture
and history that was associated with various communities in Africa. Further, this can allude to a
common practice among slave traders when they practiced appendage removal. This often
symbolized a loss of spirit for African slaves who practiced religions native to many communities
throughout West Africa, in which they believed that body parts housed the soul. This was a specific
exertion of power that dehumanized African slaves and contributed to the creation of slave societies
within the so called “new world”. This historical allusion not only highlights historical realities, but
also their implications as it criticizes the transatlantic slave trade as a means of erasure of culture for
millions of people.

Hagedorn explores the colonization of the Philippines in Souvenirs, specifically by the
Spanish, in her examination by pointing out physical manifestations of their colonialism, but then
nods to the deeper association of those actions with the current culture within the Philippines and
Filipino communities. For instance, she mentions the “spanish missionary/who raped [her] great-
grandmother”, but then she complicates this story by adding, “i asked him if he was god”. Throughout the poem, she specifically highlights how Christianity, specifically Catholicism was used as a tool in Spanish colonization. In this specific point, however, she is seemingly mocking the Spanish religion and the Spanish who were going against their own religious teaching. She highlights the hypocrisy and twisted duality of a missionary raping her great-grandmother by equating his actions and his exertion of power over her grandmother to god. This not only showcases the story of her grandmother but echoes the larger power exertion associated with Spanish colonialism. This also
shows the ways in which Christianity and aspects of Spanish culture infiltrated generations of
Filipinos, which she exemplifies in the use of words like “sanctity n piety” and “the virgin mary”
throughout the poem, when she is focusing on modern Filipino people. This word choice and the
repetition of these words is purposeful and is meant to show the past and current implications of
Spanish colonization in the Philippines, and how it has shifted Filipino culture.

Nappy edges

by Phanesia Pharel 0 Comments

Anita Hill

 

She’s the only thing I can think about. How white women are surprised by the lack of justice their country is giving them but they forget if there is no justice for Anita there can’t be any for Mrs. Ford.

 

I am so sad.

 

I think every woman has been a survivor of sexual violence in one way or another and especially women of color who for many of us our lives wouldn’t be possible without rape.

Ntozake creates a world where we call men out on their bullshit. It’s a really scary and hard pill to swallow but I’m so happy she made it.

There are many moments of sexual reclamation and happiness in these pieces. The happiness I would say that exist while she is with men. That is something that does perplex me, how horrible men are but we can still enjoy them.

I had no idea until her visit that Shange had a Phd. in Nappy Edges she pulls from the best part of academia really pulling apart pieces of work and critiquing them greatly. Placing music and poetry together an intertwining them delicately.

 

This excerpt from “I talk to myself” at least for me serves as a tool. It is Shange’s weapon and she’s passing it down to you and me!

It’s going from “I didn’t take care of myself the way I cd have had  I known I waz worth loving.” (December 1977 Ms. Magazine) to writing poems.

 

I am going to revisit a previous thought. In “Nappy Edges” Shange writes

 

“if we don’t know the voice of a writer/the way we know “oh that’s trane”/ something is very wrong. we are unfortunately/ selling ourselves down river again”

 

We cannot lose her words. I am afraid we already have. I am afraid beyond the walls of Barnard people with nappy edges aren’t hearing their poems.

I tried finding research on preserving art while climate change is happening and I found nothing, perhaps that should change. No one thinks about preserving art before a war and before we know it so much is lost. Thank goodness for the archives.