Ntozake Shange pronounced En-toe-ZAHK-kay SHONG-gay
playwright, dancer, actor, director, author, lecturer, installation artist, and poet
She is most famous for her Broadway play For Colored Girls who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf
The play is a choreopoem. It consists of 7 women who all wear one of the colors in the rainbow [ROY G BIV] excluding indigo and one lady wears brown. Each girl represents a different struggle African-American women face. In college, I was LADY IN BLUE....very powerful woman and very powerful poetry.
Opening scene excerpt from Lady in Brown
i can't hear anythin
but maddening screams
& the soft strains of death
& you promised me
you promised me...
somebody/anybody
sing a black girl's song
bring her out
to know herself
to know you
but sing her rhythms
carin/struggle/hard times
sing her song of life
she's been dead so long
closed in silence so long
she doesn't know the sound
of her own voice
her infinite beauty
she's half-notes scattered
but maddening screams
& the soft strains of death
& you promised me
you promised me...
somebody/anybody
sing a black girl's song
bring her out
to know herself
to know you
but sing her rhythms
carin/struggle/hard times
sing her song of life
she's been dead so long
closed in silence so long
she doesn't know the sound
of her own voice
her infinite beauty
she's half-notes scattered
without rhythm/no tune
sing her sighs
sing the song of her possibilities
sing a righteous gospel
let her be born
let her be born
& handled warmly.
sing her sighs
sing the song of her possibilities
sing a righteous gospel
let her be born
let her be born
& handled warmly.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment