Ntozake Shange (1948–2018)

Author of for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf

36+ Works 4,920 Members 169 Reviews 10 Favorited

About the Author

Ntozake Shange was born Paulette Linda Williams in Trenton, New Jersey on October 18, 1948. She received a bachelor's degree from Barnard College in 1970 and a master's degree in American studies from the University of Southern California in 1973. She adopted her African name while in graduate show more school. She wrote 15 plays, 19 collections of poetry, six novels, five children's books, and three essay collections. Her choreopoem, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf, opened on Broadway in 1976 and received an Obie Award. She also received an Obie in 1981 for her adaptation of Bertold Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children. Her trilogy, Three Pieces, won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry in 1981. She died on October 27, 2018 at the age of 70. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Includes the names: N. Shange, Ntozake Shang, Shange Ntozake, Ntazake Shange, Ntozake Shange, Ntosake Shange, Ntzoake Shange, Ntozake SWhange, Ntozake; Edited By Linda Sunshine Shange, Illustra

Image credit: Photo by Lilithcat

Series

Celebrating Black Women Writers

Works by Ntozake Shange

Sassafrass, Cypress and Indigo (1982) 572 copies

Ellington Was Not a Street (2004) 411 copies

Coretta Scott (2009) 316 copies

Betsey Brown (1985) 301 copies

Liliane: Resurrection of the Daughter (1994) 236 copies

Some Sing, Some Cry (2010) 211 copies

nappy edges (1978) 127 copies

I Live in Music (1994) 110 copies

A Daughter's Geography (1983) 91 copies

Three Pieces (1981) 75 copies

If I Can Cook/You Know God Can (1998) 73 copies

We Troubled the Waters (2009) 68 copies

Float Like a Butterfly (2002) 56 copies

Freedom's a-Callin Me (2012) 53 copies

The Love Space Demands: A Continuing Saga (1991) 49 copies

Wild Beauty: New and Selected Poems (2017) 44 copies

If I Can Cook/You Know God Can: African American Food Memories, Meditations, and Recipes (Celebrating Black Women… (2019) 41 copies

Ridin' the Moon in Texas: Word Paintings (1987) 41 copies

Whitewash (1890) 37 copies

Standing in the Shadows of Motown [2002 film] (2003) — Screenwriter — 33 copies

lost in language & sound: or how i found my way to the arts:essays (2011) 29 copies

The Sweet Breath of Life: A Poetic Narrative of the African-American Family (2004) 27 copies

The Beacon Best of 1999: Creative Writing by Women and Men of All Colors (Beacon Anthology) (1999) 22 copies

Sing a Black Girl's Song: The Unpublished Work of Ntozake Shange (2023) 20 copies

Daddy Says (2003) 13 copies

Plays: One (1992) 12 copies

Dance We Do: A Poet Explores Black Dance (2020) 12 copies

See No Evil: Prefaces, Essays and Accounts, 1976-1983 (1984) 11 copies

Spell 7: A theater piece in two acts (1981) 10 copies

From okra to greens : poems (1984) 6 copies

A Photograph Lovers in Motion (A Play) (1981) 5 copies

Some men (1988) 4 copies

Melissa & Smith (1976) 3 copies

Shange, Ntozake Archive 1 copy

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf (Broadway Theatre Archive) [VHS] (2002) — Screenwriter — 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

Passing (1929) — Introduction, some editions — 2,732 copies

Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study (1992) — Contributor, some editions — 518 copies

Cries of the Spirit: A Celebration of Women's Spirituality (2000) — Contributor — 373 copies

Breaking Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary African-American Fiction (1990) — Contributor — 276 copies

African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song (2020) — Contributor — 176 copies

Erotique Noire/Black Erotica (1991) — Contributor — 160 copies

Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient… (1992) — Contributor — 160 copies

Black Book (1980) — Foreword, some editions — 132 copies

Black Women Writers at Work (1983) — Contributor — 130 copies

The Penguin Book of Women's Humour (1996) — Contributor — 119 copies

Deep Down: The New Sensual Writing by Women (1988) — Contributor — 116 copies

Children of the Night: The Best Short Stories by Black Writers, 1967 to the Present (1995) — Contributor — 116 copies

Black-Eyed Susans and Midnight Birds: Stories by and about Black Women (1990) — Contributor — 104 copies

In Search of Color Everywhere: A Collection of African-American Poetry (1656) — Contributor — 100 copies

Tenderheaded: A Comb-Bending Collection of Hair Stories (2001) — Introduction — 91 copies

Nine Plays by Black Women (1986) — Playwright — 86 copies

The Virago Book of Wicked Verse (1992) — Contributor — 82 copies

Wild Women Don't Wear No Blues (1993) — Contributor — 78 copies

Honey, Hush! An Anthology of African American Women's Humor (1657) — Contributor — 77 copies

Rotten English: A Literary Anthology (2007) — Contributor — 76 copies

Choice Words: Writers on Abortion (2020) — Contributor — 75 copies

A Literary Christmas: Great Contemporary Christmas Stories (1992) — Contributor — 70 copies

Love's Fire: Seven New Plays Inspired By Seven Shakespearean Sonnets (1998) — Contributor — 69 copies

She Rises Like the Sun: Invocations of the Goddess by Contemporary American Women Poets (1989) — Contributor — 68 copies

Racism and Sexism: An Integrated Study (1988) — Contributor — 62 copies

Sugar in the Raw: Voices of Young Black Girls in America (1997) — Foreword — 61 copies

Moving Parts: Monologues from Contemporary Plays (1992) — Contributor — 60 copies

Trouble the Water: 250 Years of African American Poetry (1997) — Contributor — 56 copies

May Your Days Be Merry and Bright: Christmas Stories by Women (1988) — Contributor — 52 copies

Midnight Birds: Stories by Contemporary Black Women Writers (1980) — Contributor — 46 copies

The Seasons of Women: An Anthology (1995) — Contributor — 46 copies

Sisterfire: Black Womanist Fiction and Poetry (1994) — Contributor — 46 copies

Moon Marked and Touched by Sun: Plays by African-American Women (1993) — Contributor — 44 copies

Modern and Contemporary Drama (1958) — Contributor — 43 copies

Prejudice: A Story Collection (1995) — Contributor — 42 copies

Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry (2013) — Contributor — 42 copies

Dream Me Home Safely: Writers on Growing Up in America (2003) — Contributor — 40 copies

I Hear a Symphony: African Americans Celebrate Love (1994) — Contributor — 33 copies

A Way Out of No Way: Writing about Growing Up Black in America (1996) — Contributor — 33 copies

Catch the Fire!!! (1998) — Contributor — 29 copies

Centers of the Self: Stories by Black American Women, from the Nineteenth Century to the Present (1994) — Contributor — 28 copies

Best American Plays: 8th Series, 1974-1982 (1983) — Contributor — 19 copies

Wonders: Writings and Drawings for the Child in Us All (1980) — Contributor — 18 copies

Streetlights: Illuminating Tales of the Urban Black Experience (1996) — Contributor — 12 copies

Bittersweet (1998) — Contributor — 10 copies

360: A Revolution of Black Poets (1998) — Contributor — 9 copies

The Bluelight Corner: Black Women Writing on Passion, Sex, and Romantic Love (1998) — Contributor — 9 copies

Heresies 6: On Women and Violence (1978) — Contributor — 2 copies

The Little Magazine, v. 10, #1-2, Spring Summer 1976 — Contributor — 1 copy

The Little Magazine, v. 11, #1, Spring 1977 — Contributor — 1 copy

Tagged

20th century (91) African American (468) African American literature (60) African Americans (69) African-American Literature (64) American (67) American literature (110) anthology (264) biography (76) black (40) civil rights (55) classics (73) drama (117) erotica (49) feminism (86) fiction (718) gender (67) Harlem Renaissance (76) historical fiction (43) history (67) humor (42) literature (131) music (50) non-fiction (131) novel (102) picture book (87) play (60) plays (91) poetry (695) race (182) racism (116) read (70) short stories (141) spirituality (49) theatre (78) to-read (492) unread (41) USA (50) women (188) women's studies (73)

Common Knowledge

Other names: Williams, Paulette Linda (birth name)
Birthdate: 1948-10-18
Date of death: 2018-10-27
Gender: female
Nationality: USA
Birthplace: Trenton, New Jersey, USA
Place of death: Bowie, Maryland, USA
Places of residence: St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Brooklyn, New York, USA
Education: Barnard College (BA|1970 - American Studies)
University of Southern California (MA|1973 - American Studies)
Trenton High School
Occupations: poet
playwright
novelist
teacher
Relationships: Bayeza, Ifa (sister)
Awards and honors: Guggenheim Foundation fellowship
Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund fellowship
Pushcart Prize
Obie Award (1981)
Outer Critics Circle Award
AUDELCO Award (show all 8)
NDEA fellow (1973)
Tony Award nominee (1976)

Members

Reviews

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When… by Ntozake Shange

This choreopoem is somewhere between a poetry collection and a play. I found the introduction in this new updated edition incredibly helpful, because while I feel like I have seen this book around and been aware of it for ages, I didn't really know anything about it. The introduction described how this grew from a collection of poems into a performance piece, and then how it was updated over time.

This book is that harrowing kind of beautiful, that gives dignity by bearing witness to people living through difficult/impossible situations, that recognizes people fighting for their joy where they can find it, people surviving how they can.

The introduction also places the work in time, from its very beginnings in the mid-seventies to the way audience reactions have changed over time, to the legacy it has created for itself.

If it isn't clear, while I would have enjoyed this collection without the introduction, that context and history increased my understanding/connection/enjoyment of this piece several-fold.

This is beautiful but difficult. Please check the content warnings.

Recommended for fans of The Vagina Monologues, Shonda Rhimes, The Color Purple… (more)

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greeniezona | 22 other reviews | Feb 22, 2024 |

Sing a Black Girl's Song: The Unpublished Work of… by Ntozake Shange

There is a reason a lot of this author's work here was unpublishied to this point. This is a very uneven compilation of over four hundred pages. Some selections are very good and some are not. I liked her poetry best but the plays and essays are many times lacking. Shange rejects traditional language and spelling (could becomes cd) ala Jack Kerowuac. Also, there is constant namedropping that has the editor working overtime with footnotes.

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muddyboy | Nov 26, 2023 |

Freedom's a-Callin Me by Ntozake Shange

great book

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hcs_admin | 7 other reviews | Aug 18, 2023 |

Coretta Scott by Ntozake Shange

Kadir Nelson did the beautiful illustrations. A children's picture book that tackles a difficult and complicated topic. This book will elicit questions from students and get them thinking

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bklver | 28 other reviews | Jul 27, 2023 |

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