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tcjax 's review for:
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf
by Ntozake Shange
“but bein alive & bein a woman & bein colored is a metaphysical
dilemma/ i havent conquered yet/ do you see the point
my spirit is too ancient to understand the separation of soul & gender/ my love is too delicate to have thrown back on my face
my love is too delicate to have thrown back on my face
my love is too beautiful to have thrown back on my face
my love is too sanctified to have thrown back on my face
my love is too magic to have thrown back on my face
my love is too saturday nite to have thrown back on my face
my love is too complicated to have thrown back on my face
my love is too music to have thrown back on my face”
Anyone reading this book of choreopoetry should know from that jump that you have to read this aloud; there is simply no other way to absorb these words. This isn't because the meaning is so grand that only reciting the words will serve, it's mostly due to the fact that Shange wrote every single one of these poems phonetically. It looks terrible, and in your head it will sound terrible but once you start to speak the words you'll realize that it sounds just fine. Speaking the words also helps create the music that you're meant to be feeling while absorbing the poems.
The phonetic spelling of Ebonics in these poems bothers some people and I genuinely can't understand why; a great many people speak this way, it has nothing to do with education, it's a dialect, and these woman happen to speak a few variations of Ebonics (if you read it aloud you can hear the change from speaker to speaker). The spelling in no way increases the difficulty of comprehension, no does it suggest that this is how all black and brown people speak; these seven black and brown woman speak this way. End of story.
Now that that is out of the way; this is the story of seven black and brown woman who have considered suicide and why. It is about real struggle, hardship, and trauma portrayed in verse and dance. There is not much to say other than it is moving, literally it will make you move, and it is engrossing. I found myself lost in the rhythm of the poetry and in the stories of these woman. Some of the stories are traumatizing, some are sad; this isn't to say that every black or brown woman is living a depressing life; these seven black and brown woman do, this is their story and it is not meant to be a case study from all black and brown woman. This also doesn't mean that only black and brown woman experience the things discussed in these poems.
Race is, clearly, a topic of discussion in these poems. It comes up as a limiting factor, an obstacle, another thing to add to the pile of shit these woman already face.
“Ever since I realized there waz someone callt/
a colored girl an evil woman a bitch or a nag/
i been tryin not to be that & leave bitterness/
in somebody else's cup...”
This makes sense to me; the poems were written during a time when being Black and a woman was a combination of factors that did not necessarily have a positive impact on ones life. These woman aren't self-hating because of their race; they simply acknowledge that being 'colored' made their had life a little harder. This is really just a fact that is still true.
I am mostly just defending the authors choices because I don't understand how some people can fault her for them. These stories are touching and full of music and movement. They are sad but I had real fun reading them because of the way the phonetically spelled words rolled off of my tongue and the rhythm made me sway. I got caught up in the emotion of it all and had a blast yelling out all of these womans frustrations in verse. While I can't connect with a lot of the experiences of these woman I can connect with some, and I can connect with music, and I can connect with language. I think that's all you really need to enjoy these poems.