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The Worlds of Ntozake ShangeAND DIGITAL STORYTELLING

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Revelations on Carnal Intellectuality

by Nadia 1 Comment

Shange’s visit gave me to the opportunity to ask her questions and connect the dots between ideas I have been developing throughout the semester. I was able to address issues I have been struggling with in my previous blog posts. These issues included questions Professor Hall and Tiana had in response to my blog post “Dance: as a means of survival and a revelation of truth” which was a response to Clarke’s blog post “Sweat, Truth and Survival.”  They asked,

“What kinds of truth does the body contain that aren’t as accessible in other ways?”

&

“What  does truth mean (in my, Clarke or Shange’s  writing)?”

I wrote my previous blog post in an attempt to understand why and how dance is so central to Shange’s work as a writer. I started to gain a greater understanding of Shange’s idea of truth when I asked her what the relationship was between dancing and cooking. I noted that she writes about cooking in From Okra To Greens as a mode for survival and self-preservation in a similar way to which she writes about dance in her other works.

I particularly observed this in the way in which she talks about cooking in “From Okra to Greens / A Different Love Poem / We Need a Change.” In  this poem she writes:

i lived in her kitchen/ wit greens i cd recollect

yes the very root of  myself

In response to my question, Shange said that cooking and dance are connected to her because both allow her to participate in a tradition of people of color that has existed for centuries and therefore, allows her to feel connected to people of color throughout time and throughout the world.

I began to understand the centrality of dance as I marveled at how dance, for Shange, cannot be separated from anything else in her life. Even in her discussion about cooking she mentioned that she dances in the kitchen while cooking. For Shange, the completion of a thought cannot be expressed in words, but rather is completed with a gesture. While writing, she dances in her seat to the tapping of the keys or to the rhythm of the music she is listening to. Shange’s response reminded me of her concept of carnal intellectuality which is a way of knowing that can only be processed, understood, and expressed through the body. Therefore, truth for Shange may have less to do with what is said, but rather what is felt and experienced.

Dance: A means of survival and a revelation of truth

by Nadia 2 Comments

I really like Clarke’s question in her blog post “Sweat, Truth and Survival:“In what ways does Shange characterize truth and survival as “one”?” There are probably several lenses through which one could tackle this question and here I will attempt to offer one.

In the readings we have done thus far, dance is key for liberation of the black woman and Shange’s choreopoem “for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf” continues to express this idea.

In the first poem “dark phases,” Shange shows the importance of giving women a voice and the opportunity to be heard. Not only does Shange give voice to the “dark phases of womanhood/ of never having been a girl” (17), but she also encourages the audience to be intimate with the woman’s story, to “sing her rhythms/ carin/ struggle/ hard times. sing her song of life” (18). As the audience becomes familiar with the woman’s song, so does the woman herself who has “been dead so long/ closed in silence so long/ she doesn’t know the sound of her own voice/ her infinite beauty” (18). As for colored girls progresses, one discovers that the woman’s voice dwells in her body.

Soyica Diggs Colbert’s article “Black Feminist Collectivity in Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls…” talks about how black women’s bodies are sexualized and demonized. However, she goes on to say, “Rather than trying to assimilate into a system of desire that diminishes the shape of the black woman, Shange suggests that in order to find her voice she needed to accept her body. Dance was part of the process of moving toward acceptance.”

More than self-acceptance, dance is a means of survival.

“we gotta dance to keep from cryin/ we gotta dance to keep from dyin” (29)

“there is no me but dance/ & when i can dance like that/ there’s nothing that cd hurt me” (57)

Dance is a revelation of truth because it embodies a woman’s very essence, which is something that cannot be fully expressed in words. The lady in purple says “to come wit you/ i hadta bring everything/ the dance & the terror” (58). “[the lady in green] is Sechita and for the rest of the poem dances out Sechita’s life” (37), revealing the goddess of creativity and love through movement.

Dance also reveals truth because it makes up for the limitations of language. Dance, unlike spoken language, has the ability to live in silence, in “melody-less-ness” (17).

So, how does Shange characterize truth and survival as ”one”? She does this by showing dance is survival and dance reveals the truth. However, a question I would like to explore in future blog posts is, “What is truth for us as readers and for Shange?”