Ntozake Shange Books

Performed on the stage in 1975 by Ntozake Shange, pronounced (En-toe-ZAK-kay SHONgay), a playwright, poet and novelist. The structure for this play is choreopoem, a chorus of people reciting poems. Here, the roles are spoken from a group of black women, only identified by color of clothes, as in (lady in brown, lady in red, lady in yellow, etc.)

A departure written from the average play, the intent is clear, a voice for all black women who have suffered indignations, painful experiences from men. The language is strong offensive and obscene, but you get the point!

The colors depict a rainbow, and each girl is identified with a color that closes matches her style of speech. For example, lady in yellow speaks of love, high school, lost virginity, to bolder colors that speak of pain and tension. The cities they come from are San Francisco, Manhattan, St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Houston and Baltimore. The subjects range from youth, losing virginity, rape, abuse, rebellion, abortion, theft, social, political, etc.

The subjects range from youth, losing virginity, rape, love, theft, indignation. Some poems are done as a solo and with others, all girls chime in. Some titles of the 20 poems are: The messages are powerful. This is womanhood!

A televised version is available amongs the players are Alfre Woodard, Lynn Whitfield, and playwright Ntozake Shange herself. ...Rizzo

I was Lady in Red in when my high school drama department lauched a production of this book. I had no idea how much it would change my life. So many times I have come back to this book and the women speak to me. It is real and it is riviting. Now that I am...mmore mature, I would love to do this play again. Anyone with a daughter or a neice should read this book. This is one that Showtime or HBO should consider for a movie.

This book is absolutely amazing. It speaks to all the aspects that a minority teen girl goes through. It should be a Christmas present for every teenage girl. I loved this book.

This incredibly precious gem of a book was produced on Broadway back in the late 70's or early 80's but I was too young to see it at the time and probably would not have been able to relate to it anyway. In this prose poem, a "choreopoem" Shange depicts the hardships of African American Women in America. The different perspective of their lives is precisely and poignantly elucidated by the incredible and fascinating prose poetry of this book.

It is stunningly shocking that things that white Americans take totally for granted are just not part of the African American milieu in this country. Rape, pregnancy, domestic violence of the highest order, living in squalor and prostitution are all common place in so many of the African American communities of the 70's, 80's, 90's and now the 00's. Shange's representation of the perspective on rape is extraordinary. If an African American girl gets raped, she better not have ever been seen in public with the rapist, or there will be no conviction. Obviously it was invited. Not so with White Americans. But common place with African Americans.

A quick example of her wondrous lyricism are the following two lines that just give a glimpse of the different perspective that African American Women have toward American life:

"... we gotta dance to keep from cryin

we gotta dance to keep from dyin ..."

While the book is surely most meaningful to African American Women, it is recommended for all Americans so that the true reality of this dilemma and this shame can be absorbed and understood by all Americans. Perhaps if we all understood the conditions of the African American Women, something would be done about it. As of now, it is just not the same for people with black skin as it is for all other ethnic minorities in the United States of America.

When I was a little girl my mother was in a local acting group that traveled and put on this play. When I was about 13 years old I saw it in it entiretly for the first time. It was heartwrenching, funny, inspiring and contraversial. I loved every bit of it. Everyone especially women and men who love women should read it at least once, it provides an interesting perspective that you may be unfamiliar with. Being a black woman ain't always easy but it sure is beautiful, if you can find God in yourself.

very good,worth reading,written by various people.....
enjoyable,gets you thinking,nice photographs too.
As you may or may not know African coyly hair is quite unique in vision, texture, behaviour and probably in chemical make up too. Coily haired women around the world, go to the most extremes in terms of spending.
(Spending time, spending pain and the spending price to have African coily hair styled)
A hairstyle that we believe looks good or will help us to become socially and economically advanced.
Or maybe for our own self-esteem and maybe to attract the charms of a love interest. Either way your hair is a reflection of the state of your consciousness, your internal beliefs and your relationship with the world.

This book is like having group therapy or interviewing other women,but it is not all black women's views.I am reviewng it because I think it is worth a read.

As you may or may not know African coily hair is quite unique in vision, texture, behaviour and probably in chemical make up too. Coily haired women around the world, go to the most extremes in terms of spending.
(Spending time, spending pain and the spending price to have African coily hair styled)
A hairstyle that we believe looks good or will help us to become socially and economically advanced.
Or maybe for our own self-esteem and maybe to attract the charms of a love interest.
Either way, psychologically and philosophically I believe that your hair is a reflection of the state of your consciousness, your internal beliefs and your relationship with the world.
What about exploring physics through african hair?
For example how much pressure, gravity and tension and tearing do we put our hair through by combing it?
let alone excessive harsh combing.
Mathematically speaking how many of you readers can tell me how many curls/coils per inch your hair has, and does it vary in coil and moisture?
Next question:When does the nature of the hair change and why?
(i know it does!)
It seems to me all these books on afro hair are good and I welcome it, but we still need to be more informed and they all seem to need better editing, just like Black American beauty magazines.I must campaign for better grammar and less air brushed photos!!!
It is as if we like to see ourselves falsely rather than the reality of what we are...
Black women need to demand more scientific reasoning from our books and be less competitive over black men which only fuels their egos and as a result probably creates more baby-mothers!!!
Sorry but I had to vent out my opinions.

I give this book four stars for the effort and time invested as a writer I know it takes time...
I maintain that it is still worth reading,more than any carcinogenic chemical so called hair treatment that you pay for.

Anyway what do I know I am a black african british woman!!!!
Most of you Americans think we in Britain have no trains or any kind of progressive development!!!
Anyway if I wrote my book answering my questions that I put to you how many of you would buy it?

This is a wonderful book for anyone who would like to explore the issues that Black women face vis a vis our hair from a variety of viewpoints; not just the "politicaly correct" ones.

The book was all that, very positive, and at times emotional (I'm thinking of the passage where a father is trying to figure out how to braid his daughter's hair since her mother is across the country. His trying, and eventually getting it right, turned into bonding sessions for them. It was beautiful.) Of course the book had my favorite culture critic, bell hooks, and as usual she gave me a new persepective: to look at the whole "perm" phenomena as initiation into womanhood. Just about any Black woman who was on the brink of adolescence and was dying to get a perm should relate to that. I did. That's what this book does, it helps Black women to see just how similar our trials have been with our hair; and it's not just a generational thing. Black women from 50 to 80 years ago had the same issues and thoughts Black teenagers have today. Everyone remembers hot combs and Goody pink rollers and Royal Crown grease. Looking back many women had feelings of remembered pain, and not just from the burns on the tips of their ears and on their scalps, but inside their hearts for our collective struggle with an unattainable beauty standard.
What I also admired about this book was that it touched on the subject of hair and erotic intimacy. There was a whole section devoted to hearing the responses of Black women and men when confronted with the bedroom question: Can I run my fingers through your hair? It showed a depraved relation to our hair. In order to get and keep that salon fresh look, sleek and shiny, it must not be touched (by you and most especially your lover). Hair does not bring pleasure in the sense of us luxuriating in how it feels. How can you when it's not even yours? Weave. A woman tells the story of a young man with whom she was getting intimate with, and he wanted to run his fingers through her seemingly long shiny tresses. The moment was interrupted when he felt the hard tracks on her scalp before she could effectively slap his touch away. "You have to train these men early," another woman admonishes, "not to touch the hair." A man married for over 20 years complains of his wife's hair roller pins always poking him when she's "going down on him." He also hates, but has gotten used to, her wearing a head scarf anytime they make love. It is described in the book as Black folks having perpetual menege trios, he, she, and the head scarf. Another man wakes up to his girlfriend's "100% Korean Hair" all over the bed and floor after an especially heated night; he later ends up paying $200 dollars to have it all put back in again. The women speak of not even wanting to touch their own hair, refering to it being "hard as a rock" from gels and hair sprays. It's all in the name of a certain look, the processed one. (It's this look that lured their mates in the first place right?) It's sad that Black women talk about orchestrating certain sex positions around not messing up their fresh 'do. "You don't even think about it after while." They compensate not allowing their men to touch their hair with confidence and boldness in their performance, "It's so good he won't even be thinking about touching my hair."

I love this book. It isn't just politics or just us behind closed doors. Every possible reference to what is done to our hair is mentioned, even going bald. A Muslim woman opened my eyes to how not showing her hair takes away from having to compete for attentions based on beauty standards of hair, by being above them. It reminds us that as women, we shouldn't let physical beauty define us, even though most times it does, and we let it. "Ms. Strand" tells her tale with humor, cultural criticism, African storytelling, and 'round tha way truthfulness, barring nothing from the conversation. Truly, Tenderheaded should not be passed over.

I expected to really enjoy this book, but was disappointed. Some of the stories/essays were very good, but some of them were poorly written and/or could have done with some serious editing. It might have been better if some of them had been omitted: the book would probably have been half as long, but the overall quality would have been significantly improved.

I was also disappointed by the way the book was laid out. It seemed jumbled and poorly conceived. Photos, illustrations and cartoons/comics were seemingly thrown in randomly, with little context or relation to the surrounding content. The graphic content of the book was good, but the layout just did not display it to full advantage.

The idea behind this book was a good one, but the execution could have been a little bit better.

This is a very unique book. I have to say I LOVED IT! My being a young black woman, all the stories hit close to home. This book gave a non-bias look at black women's hair, and black culture all around the world including here in America. It gave many view points, from men women, blacks and even whites. I recommed this book to anyone who is confused about their hair and themselves. Nappy is defiantly Happy!!!! Peace.

This is a beautiful charming book. It's a poem that is depicted in illustration. The images come off the page. With reference to men like Dubois, Dizzy and Robeson it captures the spirit of children being raised amongst men.

Excellent illustrations, this would be a good review of early 20th century black history. It doesn't tell you anything new and is not the story on Ellington that I was looking for. Still well done, just very short.

Dear Reader, I thought Ellington Was Not a Street would win the Caldecott. I thought wrong. This book's illustrations can easly catch your attention.Illustrater Kadir Nelson makes the illustrations beautiful and colorful. Next time recommend this book!

I think Ellington Was Not a Street should have won the Caldecott because it had very realistc and large drawings. The drawings also helped tell the story because there were very few words on the page. I would reccomend this book for ages 9 to 19.

You know this is a memorable book right away.

On the flyleaf, young Ntozake Shange (born Paulette Williams in Trenton, New Jersey on October 18, 1948) sits on a grand piano, clutching precious black vinyl, while overhead hangs a detail of a picture from the harlem Renaissance.

You turn to the first page of text, and, against robin's egg blue, inside a darker blue background, Shange begins her story: "It hasn't always been this way. ellington was not a street." On the facing page of this oversized book is a picture so beautiful you could frame it, a street scene of umbrella'd people walking under a street sign signifying "ELLINGTON ST," with fog-locked but luminous buildings seen in quarter-profile.

She continues:

robeson no mere memory
dubois walked up my father's stairs...
...dizzy's hair was not always grey

Kadir Nelson's powerful, evocative images accompanying the prose poem. Big Paul Robeson, actor, singer, writer, activist, exile, towers over young Shange, in an entryway filled with color and art and taste. (Shange, indeed, came from an upper middle class background; her father a military surgeon and her mother an educator and psychiatric social worker.)

The elderly Dubois, cane in hand, walks with dignity in the handclasp of her welcoming father, approaching a stately grandfather's clock and young Shange, clutching her doll.

Percussionist Ray Baretto and trumpet player Diizy Gillespie greet her on the porch, autumn leaves echoing the autumnal colors of the brick and wood house, while Dizzy holds one finger to his lips and fills his cheeks, all to the curious delight of the little girl.

One by one they gather, these legends re-visited through magical grace of Shange and the mastery of Kadir Nelson. It's a time when animated conversation ("politics as necessary as collards/music even in our dreams") belies the current "DON'T WALK" sign now commanding the street. "Our house was filled with all kinda folks..." (this is no elitist reminiscence) "our doors open like our daddy's arms held us safe and loved" until finally all the guests assemble in a full family portrait: Robeson, Diz, Ellington, the doo-wop group "The Clovers," Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, former Presient and Prime Minister of Ghana, the doo-wop singer Earlington "Sonny Til" Tilghman, as well as the "Clovers" ("Love Potion No. 9"), and others, looking straight out at us, daring us, to paraphrase writer Stephen Leacock, to close fill the gap between what we aspire to and what we achieve.

*****
The book references the most famous visitors with capsule biographies on a penultimate two-page spread, and the last page, the color of indigo, repeats the entire text in poetry form. As for the "truth" of the book...

This book is art without announcing itself as art. Its feelings are true and understandable by anyone with an open heart, no matter what the background. Does it matter whether all these people came one by one, let alone gathered together one momentous day at her father's house? I feel like I've come to know Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, James Joyce, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk. We say, after all that someone's work "speaks" to us, though we've never heard them. For the record... We know (from a 1986 interview with Brenda Lyons) that visitors to young Ntozake Shange's house included, among others, Dizzy Gillespie, Walter White (Executive Secretary of the NAACP from 1931-1955), Paul Robeson, Miles Davis, Chuck Berry, and W. E. B. Du Bois. For the record...An exhilarating book, a work of uncompromising beauty.

This is more than a book to me, Sassafras, Cypress and Indigo opened doors in thought and creativity in me that I wasn't aware existed. These three taught me things of my culture, (after all, I am a Geechee), men, family and love. This book is your Mama's cooking, Christmas morning, sprituality outside your door, and the man you've been looking for, all in one place. I have cried with this book, written poetry with this book, loved with this book. I know that I should probably go into the storyline, the characters, and all that, but the only thing I really want to say is, BUY THIS BOOK! Read it and be prepared to love it.

This is my first time reading anything from Ntozake and I am very impressed with her writing. I like her literary style, content and excellent character development. I like the magical, mythical, poetic, familial, spirtitual and culinary elements delivered in this book. Highly recommended for avid readers of black authors...excellent for you library.

this book left a lasting impression on me, and as I was just reminded of it, I wanted to excite other people's interest in a joyous read. after and while reading about the lovely 3 sisters, my daughter and I invented 3 puppets and called them by the sister's names. Perhaps I remember and recommend this book because it is one you can enjoy with an adolescent.

A gift from Mama, one from their dead Father, and one from Santa, each found through a kind of scavenger hunt by clues left for each child under the Christmas tree, and each savored by the individual Child privately, free of "rivalries, jokes, and Christmas confusions."

What a marvellous, inventive Christmas tradition. If I had family, I would initiate this idea. The Christmas chapter is my favorite in this whole book. I also enjoy the recipes scattered throughout the book! I've tried a few and they're great!

I'm not going to analyze this book and try to guess at what the author was trying to do. Seems to me only the author could do that, anyway. All I can do is review this book based on what I got out of it. Besides a new Christmas ritual and some great recipes, what I got out of it was, a beautiful story about a mother and her three daughters, each with their own unique gifts: Sassafrass the weaver, Cypress the dancer, and Indigo the voodoo priestess/midwife. Their mother, Hilda Effania, wants the best for her girls, but she knows they each have to make their own way in the world; and when at the end of the story her three grown girls are reunited in the celebration of the newest member of the family, she lets them know that no matter what, they can always come home. I think this is a beautiful message, and I'm surprised this book hasn't become a movie by now. Not that being on video would improve the story, far be it; in fact, most movies based on books are so intent on sensationalism that it ends up being nothing like the book (think Waiting to Exhale). It's just that, if done right, it could become the type of touchy-feely message film that Touchstone films or even Hallmark should have jumped on long ago.

This is my favorite book, and I don't own/enjoy a lot of fiction. I've had this book about ten years now, my book has a better cover, and I enjoy pulling it down every Christmas just to read the Christmas day story again and again.

I'm seeing some references to this book as reading for grade schoolers. I think that may be a mistake. I wouldn't recommend this book for a young (prepubescent) child; the drug scenes and the passages involving sexuality are a little intense, I think, even though today's children are a lot more worldly about such things thanks to cable!

One of the best books I have ever read. From the first page I was drawn into this world completely and never looked back. One of those rare books that I was devastated to have end, and moped around for months afterward with nothing to read because I knew nothing would be able to equal it. Miz Shange's lyrical prose is incomparable, beautiful and devastating in it's ability to make an intimate connection with the reader. I consider it a 'Must' read.
If you ever have a chance to see Ntozake Shange read in person, which I have, don't miss the opportunity. She is as rare and wonderful as her writing.

This is her best book in my opion!! It has something for everyone. Full of colorful characters that everyone can relate to with a no holding back choice tongue. Travel through experiences from a woman sick and tired of hearing her man's apologies to another woman's dilemma of watching her vietnam tortured boyfriend drop their children out the window. I think the beauty of this choreopoem is that every woman finds her little gold at the end of her own rainbow. Enjoy.

Shange's imagery is hypnotizing. She immediately creates a realm of intimacy between you, her word, and colored girls. Shange takes you through a personal journey of yourself through the girls.

shange uses the arts of poetry, music and dance to create a spectacular rainbow of beauty,sorrow , joy and pain brought to the reader in a sometimes funny , sometimes serious manner in "laugh but don't laugh" imagery she creates. it's a celebration of life, struggle and woman

What a beautiful book! The poem is moving and the illustrations fit perfectly. It can be used with many age groups. I would highly recommend this book to parents and teachers.

Ntozake Shange's poem, "i live in music", along with Romare Bearden's collages are presented together in this appealing book. The text and the visuals are skillfully paired and they feed each other's expressions.

"i got 15 trumpets where other women got hips

& a upright bass for both sides of my heart"

Shange's words are in turn playful, soulful, artful. The music she describes is encompassing and tangible - a real thing to be felt and true part of our beings.

Bearden's collages and paintings are vivid, engaging images of African American life and culture. The images are expressive and rich illustrations of musicians and singers. "Show Time" and "Fancy Sticks" are nearly audible - one can see the rhythm and song.

Shange and Bearden's talents complement each other so well one would think this had been a concurrent, collaborative effort rather than subsequent assemblage.

Along with i live in music, I highly recommend all the books in this series by Stewart, Tabori & Chang's Art and Poetry series:

"Life Doesn't Frighten Me", poem by Maya Angelou, paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat..... "may i feel said he", poem by e. e. cummings, paintings by Marc Chagall...... "Dance Me to the End of Love", poem by Leonard Cohen, paintings by Henri Matisse

Each one would be a wonderful gift for a teacher, art lover, musician, poet,.... or anyone seeking inspiration. Treat yourself to one - or all.

For all ages.

Someone read this book to me when I was young. Ever since then I've been inspired to write. I love this book. The word use by Ntozake is refreshing. Her poetry is very original. She has accomplished a lot, because it's suitable for all age groups.

Autobiographical and historical and cultural all rolled up in one. With the holidays coming up, these great stories and recipes of great african and african-american dishes--dishes from people and lands of color--would go perfectly with each serving of yams, blackeyed peas and rice and collards. Foods of defiance, comfort, strength. Presented by the superb Ntozake Shange. (For my two cents, all the schoolkids ought to be taught how really influential Ntozake was in black entertainment, period, not just literature. But that sounds like a discussion for another review.)

I am not an African-American but through Shange's words I can feel the grief, the sorrow, and the triumphs of the African-American experience. By talking about food, which everybody needs and relates to, she paints a far more vivid picture of the African people in the Diaspora than a scholarly historian might. Many of her recipes call for ingredients I've hardly heard of, but her evocative descriptions of the food almost make me able to taste it.

I was at the library doing research, and this book happened to be on the wrong shelf. I picked it up and decided to check it out, and I'm glad I did! This is a great overview of authors that most people wouldn't be exposed to on an everyday basis. I'm excited to look into more work by some of the authors I read. If you like modern, diverse writing I highly recommend this book!

Annie and Lucie-Marie are daughters of two black rodeo stars who have been raised by a remote father after their mother is killed in the rodeo. Now that they are getting older, they miss their mother more than ever ý and resent their father's dating Cassie. Can Cassie take the place of a loving mother in a very different kind of family? Ntozake Shange's Daddy Says is vivid, different storytelling for young readers.

Ntozake Shange is most famous for her theatrical dance piece "for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf." But this 1983 poetry collection shows her to be a powerful wordsmith as well: these poems evoke a childhood of intimate knowledge, an adulthood of anger and loss and the desire for change, and a lover who isn't about to take any more garbage from anybody. Shange's voice slips from a poetic tone to a street slang and back again smoothly and seamlessly. There are moments I will never forget in this collection: the opening trio of poems are a tribute to Duke Ellington, among others: when she says "it hasn't always been this way / ellington was not a street / robeson was no mere memory" I could feel the words strike me with the insistent lure of song referenced by its title: "Mood Indigo." As one of her lines says, "our doors opened like our daddy's arms," this collection will pull you in and make you feel the poet's world in a way few poets are capable of in this day of polite, obscure poetry.