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The Worlds of Ntozake ShangeAND DIGITAL STORYTELLING

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A Play That Found Me and Loved Me Fiercely – Makeen

by Zachery 1 Comment

Oh For Colored Girls… how did you know that I needed you so?

Reading and seeing For Colored Girls were such uniquely incredible experiences for me. Reading it for class, I felt as though some parts resonated with me whereas others confused me. Seeing the play, witnessing the movements, hearing the language and other sounds helped to make concrete any confusion. There were moments that made me want to cry, some in which I laughed, others that made me think of specific moments of my life and even some that were foreign to me but through the performance were made clear. I truly could ramble endlessly about how wonderful an experience the play was, but for the sake of this post, I want to focus on my favorite parts of the play: the recurring elements of girlhood.

The play opened with the seven women storming the stage with a wave of song, dance, claps, jumps, and cheers. They played hand games, mimicked double-dutch, and laughed. Admittedly, this was the first moment that I wanted to cry–– not because there was any feeling of sadness but rather because I felt so seen. Almost immediately, before any lines had been delivered, I was forced to reflect. I thought back to when I might have played similar games, I thought back to when I had ever in my life seen a group of women of color simply having fun in any production; I could not think of any. To my pleasant surprise, these seemingly unstructured moments of joy and play were the ones that united each of the play’s poems. Sometimes accompanied by song, other times by stomps and claps, each of these moments evoked in me a desire to join in, a desire to play.

 

The production closed with a classic four-clap “no music” chant, which could not have been more fitting. The times in my life in which I’ve taken part in such a chant were always at the end of events/closing of spaces that I did not want to leave. This play was certainly one that I wanted to stay in for as long as possible. The women on stage and all of the Black girls/women around me kept up the “no music” chant until the house lights were turned on. The beauty of Black/brown women’s ability to make joy in the midst of pain, to play in the midst of hardship, to create music in the midst of silent was without a doubt the most profound element of For Colored Girls.

Universality & “Oneness” — Blogpost #2

by Charista 1 Comment

          Ntozake Shange’s choreopoem “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow Is Enuf” struck me to my core. The choreopoem debuted in 1976 which amazes me because it holds so much significance and truth in relation to the age we currently live in. During this time, the choreopoem’s format and subject matter was revolutionary. 

          The stories and emotions of seven black women telling their truths and experiences of abuse, rape, abortion, infidelity, courtship and the bonds that are forged between them is so extremely powerful and made me reflect on the relevance this choreopoem will hold for eternity as a part of history. The content of the choreopoem is not only still relevant to society today, but it’s also shedding a light on the urgent reminder that women of color are still being mistreated and disregarded by society, even during the #MeToo era.

          Something this choreopoem made me think a lot about was theme of universality and “oneness.” After each woman speaks her truth, another woman tells hers, sometimes interjecting for questions. It truly makes you visualize one woman speaking, while the other women stay on stage behind her. This makes “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow Is Enuf” feel like a conversation, as opposed to a set of a few monologues–ultimately reinforcing the message that these experiences are universal, not individual. These struggles were felt by the entire group, not just applicable to that one woman. In moments like this throughout the choreopoem, I was able to feel the power of both individual experience as well as a sense of collective empathy which reminded me that these systematic failures and social problems are deeply rooted in history.

 

Somebody almost walked off with all of my stuff

by Nadia 16 Comments
From For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf
Somebody almost walked off with all of my stuff
And didn’t care enough to send a note home saying I was late for my solo conversation
Or too sizes too small for my own tacky skirts
What can anybody do with something of a nobellier on an open market?
Did you get a dime for my things?
Hey man, where are you going with all of my stuff?
This is a woman’s tripping, I need my stuff to ooh and aaah about
Honest to God! Somebody almost ran with all of my stuff
And I didn’t bring anything but the kick and sway of it
The perfect ass for my man and none of it is theirs
This is mine…Phemelo’s own things…
That’s my name now give me my stuff
I see you hiding my laugh and how
I sit with my leg open sometimes to get my crotch some sunlight
This is some delicate leg and whimsical kiss
I gotta have to get to my choice
So you can’t have me unless I give me away
And I was doing all that till you ran off on a good thing
And who is this you left me with? A bad attitude
I want my things, I want my Oooh with a hot iron scar,
I want my leg with the flee bite, yeah I want my things
I want my calouse feet and quick language back in my mouth
I want my own things how I love them
Somebody almost ran off with all of my stuff
And I was standing there looking at myself the whole time
It wasn’t spirit that ran off with my stuff
It was a man who’s ego won’t drown like road ants shadow
It was a man faster than my innocence
It was a lover I made too much room for almost ran off with all of my stuff
And the one running with it, don’t know he got it
I’m shouting this is mine and he don’t , and he don’t even know he got it
My stuff is the anonymous ripped off treasure of the year
Did you know somebody almost got away with me!
Me! in a plastic bag under his arm, Me! Phemelo Motona!
Somebody almost walked off with all of my stuff!

Lady in Rainbow

by gjs2130 1 Comment

I think what makes for colored girls so remarkable is the fusion of music, language, and movement that Ntozake Shange mixes together to create this choreopoem. Purposely assigning each lady a color instead of a name creates an extended metaphor. Similar to formation of a rainbow the experiences the the Lady in Blue, Brown, Green, Orange, Pink, Red, Yellow and so forth come together to paint a clearer picture of the experience women of color endure. Shange doesn’t go through the choreopoem without including historical references. She’s purposely gives us something new to learn with each of her works. For example, Lady in Blue expresses her love for Latin music and references the salsa singer Hector Lavoe. I couldn’t continue reading without finding out more about this artist, without Youtubeing Bomba. Even without this urge the incorporation of music and dance layered throughout the poem forces you to engage most your senses.

I’m not surprised that Shange’s for colored girls comes with so much criticism. It’s been labeled by some as “man bashing” (so to speak). I think by even taking up this argument we’re failing to address the contribution that for colored girls adds to the so few narratives out there highlighing the stories of women of color. The details regarding men in this work are difficult to read and at some points gut wrenching to come to terms with, but none the less it is a woman’s story worth telling, it’s someone’s truth.

Collectivity Through Choreopoem

by Clarke 1 Comment

Shange’s work is rooted within the tradition of black women healing through art, speech, and togetherness. In Sister Citizen (2011), Melissa Harris-Perry writes about this tradition through an analysis of Baby Suggs, Janie’s grandmother in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God:

“Her words are the conduit of healing for an entire community of free blacks who are scarred by the world in which they find themselves. Rather than asking them to deny their pain or to bear it stoically in order to prove their strength, Baby Suggs encourages them to release it through song, dance, open weeping, and togetherness. She also asks the black people assembled in her clearing to embrace a new faith based on reimagining their own bodies as something beautiful and worthy of love.” (Harris-Perry 264)

For Colored Girls seeks to heal black women and girls from their pain through “song, dance, open weeping, and togetherness” as well, but does so in the form of the choreopoem. In “Black Feminist Collectivity in … for colored girls…” Soyica Diggs Colbert explains the significance of this choice: “The choreopoem creates collectivity based on the intertwining of bodies in space and words in rhythm in order to counter the displacement and dehumanization of black women’s voice, bodies, and experiences.” Not only does Shange write about black women healing through collective artistic expression, she also reinforces this tradition by placing her ladies in a physical and psychic collective and artistic space via the choreopoem.

The final poem in For Colored Girls, “a layin’ on of hands” demonstrates what this kind of space makes possible. After the lady in red says “i found god in myself & i loved her,” all of the ladies repeat these lines until it “becomes a song of joy” and “the ladies enter into a closed tight circle”. The voice of one woman, affirming herself and practicing self-love, is transformed into a collective affirmation and practice, through song. Their collective healing is then physically displayed by their closed tight circle. Diggs Colbert writes:

“The final piece, “a layin on of hands,” enacts a ritualized mode of performance that draws from spiritual practices and allows women to connect physically and on equal ground. The engagement of touch and speech offers a way to appreciate communal belonging that affirms black women’s humanity.”

Shange’s work, specifically in For Colored Girls, is so important because of what it adds to black women’s healing traditions and, ultimately, what it makes possible for women’s resistance. By affirming black women’s humanity through art, speech, and togetherness, resistance is made stronger and becomes an act of joy.

This week’s readings reminded me of the song titled, “Young Girls” by New York based Puerto Rican artist Destiny Frasqueri, who performs as Princess Nokia. The music video depicts a group of women of color leading young girls of color in a series of movements, dances, and songs. They are sitting in a tight circle, alone in a natural environment. The lyrics intentionally affirm and collectivize these young girls of color.

for colored girls, a movin’ work

by Kim Hall 9,432 Comments

First edition of the poetry collection edition of for colored girls, Shameless Hussy Press

We had seen posters advertising the piece months before we headed to midtown; Shange’s face, as painted by Paul Davis, had been plastered around the city. We hadn’t seen a black girl’s body promoting anything literary since Kali published her book of poems, in 1970, at the enviable age of nine. You couldn’t have mistaken Shange, with her head scarf and multiple earrings, for a jive tastemaker; her style wasn’t very different from that of my four older sisters, who took African-dance classes and swore by “Back to Eden. — Hilton Als

 

I wonder if Ntozake Shange knew how prescient she was when, at the end of for colored girls have considered suicide when the rainbow was enuf, the cast intones, “this is for colored girls who have considered suicide/ but are movin to the ends of their own rainbows” (88).   Since for colored girls . . . appeared on Broadway in September 1976, women have moved to “the ends of their own rainbows” by recreating the magic of fcg on college campuses and in theaters across the world.

Narration through Poems & Photography

by Michelle 3 Comments

In For Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, Ntozake Shange writes

but bein alive & bein a woman & bein colored is a metaphysical

dilemma/ I havent conquered yet / do you see the point

my spirit is too ancient to understand the separation of

soul & gender / my love is too delicate to have thrown

back on my face (45)

This passage towards the end of the choreopoem pulled me to think about the different ways that Shange has been able to narrate the complexities of being a black woman. She is able to convey pain, sisterhood, power, mundaneness, creativity, etc. through words and movement. While it is a different lady who narrates different situations, they all come together at several parts of the poem and interact with each other. This gives a sense of individuality (or isolation, the feeling that you are the only one experiencing these situations) but also discourse (the ladies form a sisterhood of shared experiences).

This form of narration reminded me of a photo series by Carrie Mae Weems. Titled “The Kitchen Series”(1990), the photo series also does an incredible job of narrating a scene with few props and sequencing. The photos take place at a kitchen table with a low hanging light, centering a black woman (Weems, herself) doing a series of activities in each photo. Many things remain constant in this photo series, such as the kitchen table, the tones of the photo, the angle of the shot, and the black woman. But each scene conveys a different situation through the small changes in props and people.  These subtle changes encourage the audience to draw connections between the photos but to also think about the person and the place in creative and different ways. Through this technique, Weems is able to narrate the complexities of black womanhood. Below are just a few from the series, but it highlights how Weems is thinking about the different aspects of being a black woman. Some photos highlight herself to be a partner (lover), a distressed self, a friend, a mother, a sexual being, etc.

I am interested in thinking more about Shange and Weem’s process of creating that has lead them to be able to accurately reflect and portray what they feel and see without reducing themselves or situations into tropes. Many of the scenarios and situations they present are familiar and shared but encourages the audience to think more about the complexities rather than reduce it to just that scene.