{"id":1814,"date":"2018-10-13T14:40:31","date_gmt":"2018-10-13T18:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/?p=1814"},"modified":"2018-10-13T14:40:31","modified_gmt":"2018-10-13T18:40:31","slug":"nappy-edges-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/?p=1814","title":{"rendered":"Nappy Edges &amp; Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the themes Shange addresses in <em>nappy edges<\/em> is exercising her own narrative voice as a black woman. The first chapter of her collection is \u201cthings i wd say\u201d. I interpreted Shange\u2019s use of \u201cwd say\u201d as opposed to \u201cam saying\u201d or simply\u201d \u201cthings I say\u201d as her stating that these are things she <em>would<\/em> say given the opportunity and space that is kept from her. In putting the title in lowercase, Shange also draws attention to how her language as a writer has been diminished, and she attributes this to the development of a singular identity of black artists. In the formation of a singular narrative, the voices of individuals have been drowned out. A monolithic \u201clanguage\u201d, as stated in Juan Goytisolo\u2019s quote, has homogenized individual experience and must be fought against if black women are to be heard. She goes on to describe the ways in which the works of black artists, musicians, poets, and writers have been inappropriately \u201cboxed in\u201d and flattened. She argues that until identities amongst artists are made distinct, \u201cour spaces, language &amp; therefore craft will not be nurtured consciously\u201d. Therefore, black artists and their identities must be made distinct in order for their voices, their <em>own <\/em>voices, to be known and grown.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/toyin.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1815\" src=\"http:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/toyin-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/toyin-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/toyin-768x508.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/toyin.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The media included above is Toyin Odutola\u2019s \u00a0(Barnard\u2019s resident artist!) \u201cuncertain, yet reserved\u201d. She says of her work \u201cwhere some may see flat, static narratives, I see a spectrum of tonal gradations and realities\u201d. Toyin\u2019s work, similar to Shange\u2019s, pushes against a singular narrative. Her entire quote is below.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;skin as geography is the terrain I expand by emphasizing the specificity of blackness, where an individual\u2019s subjectivity, various realities and experiences can literally be drawn onto the diverse topography of the epidermis. from there, the possibilities of portraying a fully-fledged person are endless.&#8221; -Toyin Ojin Odutola<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the themes Shange addresses in nappy edges is exercising her own narrative voice as a black woman. The first chapter of her collection is \u201cthings i wd say\u201d. I interpreted Shange\u2019s use of \u201cwd say\u201d as opposed to \u201cam saying\u201d or simply\u201d \u201cthings I say\u201d as her stating that these are things she [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1814"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1816,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1814\/revisions\/1816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}