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cover of the 1980 Bantam edition
Oct 27, 2018 - The author, poet, and playwright Paulette Williams was born on October 18, 1948 in Trenton, New Jersey. Until she was eight, she lived in a.
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide Whenthe Rainbow Is Enuf is a 1975 stageplay by Ntozake Shange.First performed at the Bacchanal, a woman's bar outside of Berkeley,California, it was first produced in New York City at Studio Riobea in 1975;produced Off-Broadway at the Anspacher PublicTheatre in 1976; and produced on Broadway at the Booth Theatre thatsame year.
The play was first published as a book in 1977 by Macmillan Publishing, followed by aLiterary Guild edition in October 1977 and Bantam editionsbeginning in 1980. A heavily edited version of the play was madeinto a TV movie in 1982featuring Shange, actresses Laurie Carlos and Tony Award winner Trazana Beverly from thestage production, dancer Sarita Allen, and with early-careerperformances by Alfre Woodard and LynnWhitfield.
According to Hilton Als in The New Yorker's Critic's Notebook(March 5, 2007), '...all sorts of people who might never have setfoot in a Broadway house — black nationalists, feministseparatists — came to experience Shange's firebomb of a poem....[T]he disenfranchised heard a voice they could recognize, onethat combined the trickster spirit of Richard Pryor with a kind of mournfulblues.'
Structurally, For Colored Girls is a series of 20poems, referred collectively as a 'choreopoem', performed through acast of nameless women, each known only by a color: 'Lady inYellow', 'Lady in Purple', etc.. The poems deal with love,abandonment, rape, and abortion. The performances ofthe seven actresses are focused on their specific stories; i.e.,Lady in Blue's visceral account of a woman who chooses to have anabortion; and Lady in Red's tale of domestic violence.
Lady in Brown embodies youthful determination as she runs awayfrom home to live with Haitianliberator ToussaintL’Ouverture. The end of the play brings together all of thewomen for “a laying on of hands,” where Shange evokes the power ofwomanhood as the Lady in Red begins the mantra “I found God inmyself/ and I loved her/ I loved her fiercely.”
FilmAdaptation
On September 3, 2009 (following an original pitch made in March2009 by Nzingha Stewart), Lionsgate announced that it was teaming upwith Tyler Perry's34th Street Films for a film adaptation of For ColoredGirls. The film will be written, directed and produced byPerry. Shange confirmed that Halle Berry, Angela Bassett, and Jill Scott have allsigned contracts. Filming is set to begin November 2009 and will bereleased in 2010.
Externallinks
For Colored Girls Who HaveConsidered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf at the Internetoff-Broadway Database
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IN THIS ISSUE
Introduction: Singing a “Black Girl’s Song” at Barnard and Beyond
by Kim F. Hall and Monica L. Miller
by Kim F. Hall and Monica L. Miller
About this Issue
by Tami Navarro
by Tami Navarro
Recommended Reading and Online Resources
by Vani Natarajan
by Vani Natarajan
PART 1
We are an interdisciplinary culture / we understand more than verbal communication
“Everything you do . . .”: Recipes from Ntozake Shange’s Art/Work
by Jennifer DeVere Brody
by Jennifer DeVere Brody
Learning How to Listen: Ntozake Shange’s Work as Aesthetic Primer
by Farah Jasmine Griffin
by Farah Jasmine Griffin
Indigo Generations: Shange in Praxis and Being the Folk
by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
PART 2
A Poetic Possibility / A Poetic Imperative: for colored girls
“walkin on the edges of the galaxy”: Queer Choreopoetic Thought in the African Diaspora
by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan
by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan
“There is No Incongruence Here”: Hispanic Notes in the Works of Ntozake Shange
by Vanessa K. Valdés
by Vanessa K. Valdés
Black Feminist Collectivity in Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf
by Soyica Diggs Colbert
by Soyica Diggs Colbert
Ntozake Shange on Stage and Screen
a video featuring Ntozake Shange, Soyica Diggs Colbert, and Monica L. Miller
a video featuring Ntozake Shange, Soyica Diggs Colbert, and Monica L. Miller
A Hole in the Sky
a choreopoem and video by Niyi Osundare
a choreopoem and video by Niyi Osundare
PART 3
Moving our theater into the drama of our lives: Performing Shange
Project “For Colored Girls:” Breaking the shackles of role deprivation through prison theatre
by Lorraine Moller
by Lorraine Moller
Feminism, Activism, Race and the Future of Looking Back: College Performances of for colored girls and Columbia University’s 2014 Women-of-Color Vagina Monologues
by Pam Cobrin
by Pam Cobrin
Monologues for Colored Girls: Shange’s Influence on Barnard’s All Women-of-Color Vagina Monologues
by Victoria Durden
by Victoria Durden
the survival and the remaking: Interview with Performer Robbie McCauley on black history, universality, and for colored girls
by Kathryn Tobin
by Kathryn Tobin
“I Think Good Theater Just Translates”: Interview with Playwright Mũmbi Kaigwa
by Chris Cynn
by Chris Cynn
“There’s Trouble Out There”: Interview with Director Wole Oguntokun
by Chris Cynn
by Chris Cynn
“It’s OK to Create Art from Wounded Spaces”: Video Interview with Filmmaker Stacey Muhammad
by Gabrielle Davenport
by Gabrielle Davenport
PART 4
Lotsa body and cultural heritage: Shange’s legacy
Her Pen is a Machete: The Art of Ntozake Shange
a video by Hope Dector, Kim F. Hall, and Monica L. Miller | featuring Soyica Diggs Colbert, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Vanessa K. Valdés, Jennifer DeVere Brody, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs
a video by Hope Dector, Kim F. Hall, and Monica L. Miller | featuring Soyica Diggs Colbert, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Vanessa K. Valdés, Jennifer DeVere Brody, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Moving Across Disciplines and Genres: Teaching Shange
a video by Hope Dector, Kim F. Hall, and Monica L. Miller | featuring Monica L. Miller, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Kim F. Hall, Mariel Rodney, Jennifer DeVere Brody, and Soyica Diggs Colbert
a video by Hope Dector, Kim F. Hall, and Monica L. Miller | featuring Monica L. Miller, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Kim F. Hall, Mariel Rodney, Jennifer DeVere Brody, and Soyica Diggs Colbert
Performing Shange
a video featuring Ebonie Smith, Katherine Bergstrom, Gabrielle Davenport, Victoria Durden, Sarah Esser, Taylor Harvey and Simone Sobers
a video featuring Ebonie Smith, Katherine Bergstrom, Gabrielle Davenport, Victoria Durden, Sarah Esser, Taylor Harvey and Simone Sobers
A Conversation with Ntozake Shange and Dianne McIntyre
a video featuring discussion moderated by Paul Scolieri
a video featuring discussion moderated by Paul Scolieri