Reviews - For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf

567 reviews for:

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf

Oluwatosin Salau's death hits very close to home. She was Nigerian, an activist, abused by her family and just starting her life. I am all of these. Since hearing about her death, I have felt a deep seated sadness because that could have been me. And I don't mean that in an obscure way. I mean that in a I am a dark skinned Nigerian woman who led protests last week and was in exactly the same position that she was in. Except I lived.

I keep going back to this book, For Colored Girls, and I keep thinking about all the injustices I've faced and will still face. I think about how I'm going out to fight for the rights of men who won't hesitate to kill me if they want to. Men who will use all sorts of excuses to avoid standing up for black women who continue to stand up for them. And I think about the last sentence in this book;

& this is for colored girls who have considered suicide / but are moving to the ends of their rainbow

and I wonder if I'll live till the point where I'll consider moving to the end of my rainbow.

Rest in power, Tosin.

soafricane's review against another edition

5.0

It’s not difficult to see why this choreopoem was a cornerstone in the early foundations of the feminist movement. It steers narratives around sexual awakenings and sexual experiences for Black women who have contemplated surrendering to the structural violences that govern their lives.

For colored girls charts empowering trajectories for its characters by motioning them towards the ends of their own rainbows—as the poet Ntozake herself puts it.
My favorite poems were “toussaint” “somebody almost walked off wid alla my stuff” and “sorry”.

I’d like to participate in or stage a dramatic reading of for colored girls. I think it would be essential to make interactive connections with the work and I believe that’s exactly why it was composed.

venneh's review against another edition

5.0

This is a choreopoem that has been filmed (by Tyler Perry and starring a young Tessa Thompson!) but also staged several times in the almost 50 years since this poem was written. Obviously, there’s a lot that still rings true about this poem, even today. I read through this in the space of about two nights, and enjoyed it a lot. Yes, there is a good deal about black women’s pain, but there is also a lot of finding the limits of what you will put up with, and getting through. Mix this in with children’s rhymes, and you have overall what is a joyful piece about women finding themselves again.

I admittedly read through a lot of the reviews on here before I read this myself, and two of the most frequent criticisms I see are about “misspellings” and that this relies heavily on the pain of black women. I don’t feel like the misspelling criticism applies here - this is written as women speaking it, and I think the grammar that Ms. Shange used was intentional, both for people who are performing it to know how to pronounce it, and also the rules of AAVE. And as for the use of black women’s pain - yes, there’s a lot of it, but part of this is the joy of learning to live, and leave the situations and the pain they find themselves in. (Ms. Shange also admits in this edition that she knows more now about AIDS/HIV, and in the mid-70s when this was published, not a lot was known.) I am also reading a collection of Audre Lorde’s essays rn that actually touches on another criticism of this, that this is actually sexist against black men and out for their blood (Vincent Staples). I recommend going and reading Audre Lorde’s “Sexism: An American Disease in Blackface” for a thorough takedown of that point of view.

I found this in the sale section at Unabridged, and recommend picking it up if you get to.

jerbrown's review against another edition

Very good book. Really an eye opener to different situations in the African American culture.

katlo's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

_ninahannah's review against another edition

4.0

4 stars on my first read but it's the kind of thing that I think will become 5 stars if i reread it

letitiaharmon's review against another edition

4.0

This is one of those shows that really hinges on the casting. If you get it right, amazing things happen. If you get it even slightly off...wowza. This is basically a spoken word piece, and you need actresses who thrive in that medium. The poetry and the storytelling of it stand alone as a literary piece, but if you're going to see it live, it needs to be with people who understand how to perform this genre. I've seen both ways. I love the concept, I love Shange's writing unequivocally, and this stands as a cultural piece that should be revered and revisited. But damn, please cast the right actress.