Women’s History Month’s Feature: Ntozake Shange, Playwright, Poet, and Novelist

Hello book lovers! In celebration of Women’s History Month, I would like to present to you playwright, poet, and novelist, Ntozake Shange. She was born Paulette Linda Williams but changed her name in 1971. In Zulu, Ntozake means “she who comes with her own things” and Shange means “who walks like a lion.”

Most of her work centered around issues relating to race and Black power. She is best known for her 1976 Broadway produced play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf. This 20-part choreopoem (a term she coined) chronicled the lives of women of color and is a combination of poetry, dance, music, and song that won various awards (Obie Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, and the AUDELCO Award). This was the second play to reach Broadway written by a Black woman (preceded by Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun in 1959). It was adapted as a book in 1977, a 1982 television film and a 2010 movie, For Colored Girls, directed by Tyler Perry. It will also be revived on Broadway in April 2022 and will be directed and choreographed by Tony Award-nominee Camille A. Brown.

Shange has written other successful plays including Spell No. 7, a 1979 choreopoem that explored the Black experience, and an adaption of Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children (1980) which won an Obie Award. Her other works include the novels: Sassafras, Cypress & Indigo (1982), Betsey Brown (1985), and Liliane (1994). Her poems, essays and short stories have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. Although she is gone, she will definitely not be forgotten for the trailblazer that she was (1948 – 2018).

Writing Tip: As a writer, you should not be afraid to explore different writing styles that doesn’t fit squarely into standard aesthetics. Shange’s choreopoems and the title of her first play exemplify this.

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