Narration through Photos – The Worlds of Ntozake Shange and Digital Storytelling

Ntozake The Photographer | Archive Find #2 | Makeen

by Zachery on November 24, 2019 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.

photo/audio essays on Santería and Gullah/Geechee culture

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by Sophia on November 12, 2015 3 Comments

Audio: Sacred Rhythms of Cuban Santería
produced by Olavo Alén Rodríguez (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, 1995), 1 hour

On Contemporary Cuban Practice of Santería
Photographed and captioned by Phil Clarke Hill

: The ceremony of San Lazaro at El Rincón church lasts all night, culminating in a midnight mass. Over the course of the night and the following day, thousands of people from all walks of life visit to make offerings and ask for help from San Lazaro.

: Each of these clay statues is an Ellegua, which Santería adherents receive in order as they gradually complete their initiations.

: A babalawo blessing the people with ceremonial corn powder. Over hundreds of years, believers have projected their worship of the Orishas onto images of Catholic saints. Nowadays, the religion is a true mixture of beliefs, with adherents taking different aspects on board—either leaning towards the Catholic or African side, depending on their personal choices.

: Animal sacrifice is an integral part of the rituals. Before the sacrifice, the animal is passed between those involved to take away their negative energy, which will then be released through the animal’s death. Music is also an important part of the practice; the Orishas are raised and brought into the physical realm through drumming and African-style call-and-response chanting.

: Santería has been practiced in Cuba for hundreds of years, ever since the first slaves arrived from Nigeria. Many Cubans, even if they don’t actively practice the religion, still consult santeros about issues in their lives.

: Santeros believe that blood rituals are necessary to release the negative energy and spirits of those involved. Certain parts of the ceremony have to be performed by a babalawo, who can only be a man who has reached the highest level of initiation.

: Herbal mixtures are used to cleanse those involved in the ceremony, in addition to the spraying of rum as a blessing. The mixtures are prepared by hand for a long time so they can encase the positive, cleansing energy from those making them.

: Santería is not regarded as an official religion by the state and therefore has no official places of worship; the ceremonies are carried out in the houses of the santeros. Various charms represent luck and protection. This pigeon was hanging above the door throughout the ritual, which lasts several days.

: The pilgrimage of San Lazaro is the largest religious event in Cuba. Every December 17, people come from all over the country to pray for good health or to be healed. Many of them go to great lengths to show their dedication, such as this man who dragged a concrete statue on his back for nine miles.

: Santeria grew in social ceneres called cabildos. The cabildo pictured is one of the oldest in Cuba; it’s located in Palmira, which is often regarded as the birthplace of Santería.

Shadows of the Gullah Geechee
Photographed by Pete Marovich
Captioned by Jordan G. Teicher

: Gullah Grub restaurant owner Bill Green and Ed Atkins hang out in Atkins Bait Shop, one of the oldest businesses in Beaufort County.

: Robert Middleton, deacon at First African Baptist Church on St. Helena, sits in the Coffin Point praise house with an old bible that has been used in the praise house for over 60 years.

: Jery Bennet Taylor sews sweetgrass baskets on the porch at Gullah Grub, a restaurant on St. Helena Island specializing in traditional Gullah food.

: Queen Quet Marquetta L. Goodwine, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation, stands outside of one of the three remaining praise houses on St. Helena Island, S.C. Built during the slave era, they were small places of worship for the Gullah and still serve an important spiritual role in the Gullah community.

: Frank Bailey with a tray full of freshly picked beans from his garden in the Hog Hammock community on Sapelo Island.

: Darryl Stoneworth and his wife Angela carry the sweetgrass they harvested at the Okeetee Hunt Club near Hardeeville, South Carolina. With all of the traditional areas to harvest the grass in Mt. Pleasant now shut off to the Gullah due to the development of shopping centers and private residential communities, Stoneworth travels the 90 miles south to Hardeeville a few times each week during the month of July to pull the grass.

: Golf carts from private communities on Daufuskie Island surround the First Union African Baptist. Traditionally a Gullah church, it is now also used by residents of the private gated communities and visitors to the island.

: Members of the First Union African Baptist church discuss island issues and politics following a service on Daufuskie Island.

: A young member of Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church walks toward the shore after being baptized in Skull Creek. Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church is one of the few churches on Hilton Head Island that still performs traditional river baptisms. Other churches have given up the practice as development has limited their access to the island’s waterways.

: Eddie Grant Jr. tends his mother’s garden as new condominiums rise along her property line. While Grantâ’s family has managed to hold onto their land, many other Gullah Geechee residents have been forced to sell their property due to rampant development and escalating taxes.

Narration through Poems & Photography

by Michelle on October 7, 2015 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.

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Ntozake The Photographer | Archive Find #2 | Makeen

photo/audio essays on Santería and Gullah/Geechee culture

Narration through Poems & Photography