{"id":455,"date":"2015-10-30T18:27:05","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T18:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/?p=455"},"modified":"2015-10-30T18:27:05","modified_gmt":"2015-10-30T18:27:05","slug":"my-top-five-quotes-from-shanges-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/?p=455","title":{"rendered":"My top five quotes from Shange’s works"},"content":{"rendered":"

My top five quotes from Shange’s works<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Peace<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

5) From Lost in Language and Sound<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cnow that i am writing abt my own work\/ I am finally finding some use for the appraisals of strangers. One new york critic had accused me of being too self-conscious of being a writer\/ the other from the midwest had asserted that I waz so involved with the deconstruction of the English language\/ that my writing approached verbal gymnastics like unto a reverse minstrel show.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I found this statement \u00a0very entertaining yet curious.\u00a0 She admitted during one of our lunchtime visits, it was supposed to be an insult.\u00a0\u00a0 Verbal gymnastics like undo a reverse minstrel show.\u00a0\u00a0 What was he saying? \u00a0Was it difficult?\u00a0 \u00a0Did he find\u00a0 the writing distracting? \u00a0Or was the work delightful?\u00a0 I admire the audacity Ms. Shange demonstrates here.\u00a0 She does not need the approval of strangers, theatre critics and others who come in contact wither work.\u00a0\u00a0 She is different; she is an enigma, she de\/constructs the English language with her lower case writing, thought provoking dialogue and slashes\u2026 on purpose.\u00a0 She breaks all the rules and is proud to do so.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

#4 from Ellington was not a Street<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

our house was filled with all kinda folks<\/p>\n

our windows were not cement or steel<\/p>\n

our doors opened like our daddy\u2019s arms<\/p>\n

held us safe & loved<\/p>\n

children growing in the company of men<\/p>\n

old southern men & young slick ones<\/p>\n

sonny til was not a boy<\/p>\n

the clovers no rag-tag orphans<\/p>\n

our crooners\/we belonged to a whole world<\/p>\n

nkrumah was no foreigner<\/p>\n

virgil akins was not the only fighter<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This poem reminds me of being an onlooker during an evening of luminaries during the Harlem Renaissance. In the book Ellington was not a Street, its told from the perspective of a young precocious girl, listening and learning.\u00a0\u00a0 The doors of her home were always open for visitors, and the home sounded like a place where people of color could frequent safely.\u00a0 Ntozake shared with me that her father actually knew these luminaries.\u00a0 You see, they would stay at her family home because they could not check into hotels. \u00a0Her father Dr. Paul T. Williams was the ring doctor for boxer Virgil Akins, he knew Duke Ellington because he loved music, he knew Sonny Til who was the lead singer for the Orioles , and her father attended Lincoln University with \u00a0\u00a0Ghana Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah. \u00a0Now, isn\u2019t that a global who\u2019s who for the young Ntozake to find sitting at her dinner table.\u00a0 \u00a0These are memories she holds close to her heart and have molded and shaped her into the woman we admire today.<\/p>\n

\"treble\"<\/a><\/p>\n

#3 from loosening strings or give me an \u2018A\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cyes\/I listened to country joe and the fish\/<\/p>\n

yes\/I howled with steppenwolf\/<\/p>\n

yes\/fleetwood mac was my epiphany\/<\/p>\n

& creedance clearwater revival<\/p>\n

swept me neath the waters\/<\/p>\n

hendrix my national anthem\/always<\/p>\n

yes blind lemon Jefferson & b.b. huddle<\/p>\n

by my stage door\/yes chuck berry lives next to me\/<\/p>\n

yes<\/p>\n

eric clapton made me wanna have a child named layla\/<\/p>\n

yes<\/p>\n

I selected this section of the poem because it allowed me to look at yet another side of this woman I know as Zake.\u00a0 For me that represents that high energy rock and roll side of Ntozake, and picture her \u00a0during her young adult days. \u00a0This young wordsmith who was forging words into poetry, forging words into plays, was looking around\u00a0 society,\u00a0 living in her world, and making her observations her muse.\u00a0 \u00a0During those days I can image this quick talking, quick moving ,\u00a0 pretty young woman, who hung out in coffee shops and wrote, hung out at rock concerts and wrote, and hung out at the Public Theatre and wrote.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

#2 from Liliane<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBut your girls have to realize the freedom you wage your most serious battle for is your very own mind.\u00a0 No white man on this earth has the power or the right for that matter to control a single inch of your brain. Your minds, girls are the first battlefields for freedom.\u00a0 You understand me.\u201d<\/p>\n

These were the words from S. Bliss Lincoln the mother of Liliane\u2019s. She and her best friend Roxie were in \u00a0best friend from Biloxi Mississippi.\u00a0 The girls and their families were hosting a Legal Defense Fund party\/fundraiser.\u00a0 These type groups were prominent in the deep South during the 1960\u2019s long before the days of political Super Pacs.\u00a0 Just as the fundraiser got into full swing, the party goers were paid an unexpected visit from the Klu Klux Klan.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

#1-from For Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide when the Rainbow is Enuf<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI fell into numbness<\/p>\n

Till the only tree I cd see<\/p>\n

Took me up in her branches<\/p>\n

Held ,e in the breeze<\/p>\n

Made me dawn dew<\/p>\n

The chill at daybreak<\/p>\n

The sun wrapped me up swinging rose light everywhere<\/p>\n

The sky laid over me like a million men<\/p>\n

I waz cold\/I was burin up\/ a child<\/p>\n

& endlessly weaving garments from the moon<\/p>\n

With my tears<\/p>\n

I found God in myself and I loved her.\u00a0 I loved her fiercely\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For many years I had a distant relationship with God.\u00a0 As I grew up, I was force fed a steady diet of Christianity, white Jesus and how everything I said, watched and thought would eventually send me to Hell. I took what would be called today verbal and physical abuse because my parents were firm believers in that Bible passage \u201cspare the rod, spoil the child.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0I remember one day in church a girl, who happened to be about 6 years older than me, was made to apologize to the church because she was an unwed mother. The boy who impregnated her was nowhere to be seen, but she was publically humiliated.\u00a0 \u00a0I was only 10 years old,\u00a0 but even then I knew there has to be more to God than this.<\/p>\n

About 8 years ago I found a spiritual home (Unity Churches) where all judgment about life is suspended, and all are welcomed with open arms.\u00a0 As I attended the leadership classes and the membership classes I finally joined the church.\u00a0 It was then experienced what this poem speaks of and I realized that I had found what I had been looking for so diligently for my entire life\u2026. God in myself.<\/p>\n

\"Unity-CoP-Logo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My top five quotes from Shange’s works   5) From Lost in Language and Sound \u201cnow that i am writing abt my own work\/ I am finally finding some use for the appraisals of strangers. One new york critic had accused me of being too self-conscious of being a writer\/ the other from the midwest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-455","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\/455","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\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=455"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":462,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions\/462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}