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For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf - Hardcover

 
9780026098403: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf
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A theatrical celebration, in verse and prose, of being female and black incorporates the triumphs, joys, griefs, and losses of black women in America

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:
Ntozake Shange, poet, novelist, playwright, and performer, wrote the Broadway-produced and Obie Award-winning For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf. She has also written numerous works of fiction, including Sassafras, Cypress and Indigo, Betsy Brown, and Liliane.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Chapter 1

The stage is in darkness. Harsh music is heard as dim blue lights come up. One after another, seven women run onto the stage from each of the exits. They all freeze in postures of distress. The follow spot picks up the lady in brown. She comes to life and looks around at the other ladies. All of the others are still. She walks over to the lady in red and calls to her. The lady in red makes no response.

lady in brown

dark phrases of womanhood

of never havin been a girl

half-notes scattered

without rhythm/no tune

distraught laughter fallin

over a black girl's shoulder

it's funny/it's hysterical

the melody-less-ness of her dance

don't tell nobody don't tell a soul

she's dancin on beer cans & shingles

this must be the spook house

another song with no singers

lyrics/no voices

& interrupted solos

unseen performances

are we ghouls?

children of horror?

the joke?

don't tell nobody don't tell a soul

are we animals? have we gone crazy?

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

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.

lady in brown

i'm outside chicago

lady in yellow

i'm outside detroit

lady in purple

i'm outside houston

lady in red

i'm outside baltimore

lady in green

i'm outside san francisco

lady in blue

i'm outside manhattan

lady in orange

i'm outside st. louis

lady in brown

& this is for colored girls who have considered suicide

but moved to the ends of their own rainbows.

everyone

mama's little baby likes shortnin, shortnin,

mama's little baby likes shortnin bread

mama's little baby likes shortnin, shortnin,

mama's little baby likes shortnin bread

little sally walker, sittin in a saucer

rise, sally, rise, wipe your weepin eyes

an put your hands on your hips

an let your backbone slip

o, shake it to the east

o, shake it to the west

shake it to the one

that you like the best

lady in purple

you're it

As the lady in brown tags each of the other ladies they freeze. When each one has been tagged the lady in brown freezes. Immediately "Dancing in the Streets" by Martha and the Vandellas is heard. All of the ladies start to dance. The lady in green, the lady in blue, and the lady in yellow do the pony, the big boss line, the swim, and the nose dive. The other ladies dance in place.

lady in yellow

it was graduation nite & i waz the only virgin in the crowd

bobby mills martin jerome & sammy yates eddie jones & randi

all cousins

all the prettiest niggers in this factory town

carried me out wit em

in a deep black buick

smellin of thunderbird & ladies in heat

we rambled from camden to mount holly

laughin at the afternoon's speeches

& danglin our tassles from the rear view mirror

climbin different sorta project stairs

movin toward snappin beer cans &

GET IT GET IT THAT'S THE WAY TO DO IT MAMA

all mercer county graduated the same nite

cosmetology secretarial pre-college autoshop & business

all us movin from mama to what ever waz out there

that nite we raced a big ol truck from the barbeque stand

trying to tell him bout the party at jacqui's

where folks graduated last year waz waitin to hit it wid us

i got drunk & cdnt figure out

whose hand waz on my thigh/but it didn't matter

cuz these cousins martin eddie sammy jerome & bobby

waz my sweethearts alternately since the seventh grade

& everybody knew i always started cryin if somebody actually

tried to take advantage of me

at jacqui's

ulinda mason was stickin her mouth all out

while we tumbled out the buick

eddie jones waz her lickin stick

but i knew how to dance

it got soo hot

vincent ramos puked all in the punch

& harly jumped all in tico's face

cuz he was leavin for the navy in the mornin

hadda kick ass so we'd all remember how bad he waz

seems like sheila & marguerite waz fraid

to get their hair turnin back

so they laid up against the wall

lookin almost sexy

didnt wanna sweat

but me & my fellas

we waz dancin

since 1963 i'd won all kinda contests

wid the cousins at the POLICE ATHLETIC LEAGUE DANCES

all mercer county knew

any kin to martin yates cd turn somersaults

fore smokey robinson cd get a woman excited

The Dells singing "Stay" is heard

we danced

doin nasty ol tricks

The lady in yellow sings along with the Dells for a moment. The lady in orange and the lady in blue jump up and parody the lady in yellow and the Dells. The lady in yellow stares at them. They sit ...

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherMacmillan Publishing Company
  • Publication date1977
  • ISBN 10 0026098407
  • ISBN 13 9780026098403
  • BindingHardcover
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages64
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780684843261: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780684843261
Publisher: Scribner, 1997
Softcover

  • 9781451624205: For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf (Scribner Classics)

    Scribner, 2010
    Hardcover

  • 9780020248910: FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE / WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF

    Scribner, 1989
    Softcover

  • 9781439186817: For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf

    Scribner, 2010
    Softcover

  • 9780553273250: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide

    Bantam..., 1982
    Softcover

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