Ntozake Shange (1948-2017)

Continuing in the spirit of Nat'l Novel Writing Month, we're exploring the famous Ntozake Shange and her catalog of work.

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Poet, performance artist, playwright, and novelist Ntozake Shange was born Paulette Williams on October 18, 1948, in Trenton, New Jersey. She earned a BA in American studies from Barnard College in 1970 and then left New York to pursue graduate studies at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. It was during this time that she took the name "Ntozake" ("she who comes into her own things") "Shange" ("she who walks like a lion") from the Zulu dialect Xhosa. She received an MA in American studies from USC in 1973.

Among her plays are Daddy Says (1989); Spell #7 (1985); From Okra to Greens/A Different Kinda Love Story (1983); A Photograph: Lovers-in-Motion (1981); and the renowned for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf (1977), which won an Obie Award and received Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Award nominations. The play, or "choreopoem," became an instant classic. Performed by an ensemble of seven African American women, the play is comprised of monologues, movement, and poems that together describe the pain and struggle women face because of racism and sexism.

She also authored multiple children’s books and prose works, including Some Sing, Some Cry (2010), If I Can Cook You Know God Can (1998), See No Evil: Prefaces, Essays & Accounts, 1976-1983 (1984), Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo: A Novel (1982), and The Black Book (1986, with Robert Mapplethorpe).

Among her numerous honors are fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, and a Pushcart Prize. Shange lived in Brooklyn. She died on October 27, 2018.

Reference

Poets.org