Ntozake Shange – författare

I am gonna write poems til I die and when I have gotten outta this body I am gonna hang round in the wind and knock over everybody who got their feet on the ground. In the late 1960s, Ntozake Shange was a student at Barnard College discovering her budding talent as a writer, publishing in her school''s literary journal, and finding her unique voice. By the time of her death in 2018, she had scorched blazing trails across countless pages and stages, redefining genre and form as we know them, each verse, dance, and song a love letter to Black women and girls, and the community at large. In Sing A Black Girl''s Song, we meet the young Shange, learn the moments that inspired for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, travel with an eclectic family of musicians, and sit on "The Couch" opposite Shange''s therapist. We read, in their original form, the literary rebel''s politically charged verses from the Black Arts Movement era alongside her signature tender rhythm and cadence that capture the minutia and nuance of Black life.This new posthumous collection, including never-before-seen unpublished essays, plays, and poems, is a long-lasting gift from this seminal Black feminist writer, one of the fiercest and most highly celebrated artists of our time.EDITED BY IMANI PERRY

''Inspiring. Emotionally charged. Ground-breaking'' BERNARDINE EVARISTO''A revelation. I am so thankful to Ntozake Shange for seeing us, reflecting us and showing us how beautiful we can be'' JESMYN WARD''Encompassing, it seems, every feeling and experience a woman has ever had'' NEW YORKERThe Lady in Red has adored her lover for eight months, 2 weeks and a day, but now she is leaving. The Lady in Blue has an abortion, all alone. The Lady in Brown can read fifteen books in three weeks.The Lady in Purple has met a man, and is finally being real. The Lady in Yellow was a virgin, until she spent her graduation night driving around in a black Buick with boys. And the Lady in Orange has to dance to keep from crying and dying.Written in 1975 and immediately hailed as a masterwork, this ''choreo-poem'' is made up of monologues detailing loss, betrayal, love and community. A passionate and fearless portrait of black womanhood in the twentieth century, it resonates with deep emotional power and unusual beauty. A W&N Essential

Ntozake Shange’s most beloved novel, Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo, is the story of three “colored girls,” three sisters and their mama from Charleston, South Carolina. Sassafrass, the oldest, is a poet and a weaver like her mother, gone north to college and living with other artists in Los Angeles, trying to weave a life out of her work, her man, her memories, and her dreams. Cypress, the dancer, leaves home to find new ways of moving and easing the contractions of her soul. Indigo, the youngest, is still a child of Charleston—with “too much of the South in her”—who lives in poetry, can talk to her dolls, and has a great gift of seeing the obvious magic of the world.

This story of three sisters making their way in an often hostile world is a touching celebration of womanhood.