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“And that is for Coloured ladies who’ve thought of suicide however are transferring to the ends of their very own rainbows.” These affirming phrases are discovered within the ebook For Coloured Ladies who’ve Thought of Suicide/ When The Rainbow is Enuf, the enduring assortment of poetry by writer and playwright Ntozake Shange.
After making a physique of labor that centered and celebrated Black girls, Shange died in her sleep two years in the past immediately, Oct. 27. With permission from her property, MADAMENOIRE is honoring the sensible playwright’s legacy by publishing an excerpt from the ebook, Sing a Black Lady’s Music: The Unpublished Work of Ntozake Shange.
The ebook is a posthumous assortment of a few of Shange’s essays, poems and performs. It was edited by Dr Imani Perry, a MacArthur Genius Fellow, and the foreword was written by New York Occasions bestselling Creator Tarana Burk.
Shange’s lengthy record of accomplishments embrace an Emmy Award, a Tony Award, two Obie Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship and extra. But, past the spectacular record {of professional} accolades, for a lot of Black girls, the legacy of the gifted poet and novelist was immeasurable. As MN beforehand famous, “She embodied Black feminism and Black liberation. She was free in her physique and in her artwork.” The award-winning playwright created a good looking legacy by crafting intentional and loving work.
Could this poem, entitled “Oshun’s Daughter,” function one other instance of the late novelist creating work with love and intention.
oshun’s daughter
i come to you in feathered robes
& reply questions
you can not ask
i dance cross candlelit skies
singin low like celia cruz
spherical drums
swayin in spangles
i’m the carnival queen
ma rainey swingin low
seekin daybreak
wishin you life
oshun’s daughter
grows purple she grows mute
within the wickedness of the subway
strangles in her personal cries
razors in yr face pictures blazin in darkness
received’t you share yr breath with me
breathe my ancientness towards yr soul
& swoon
in my warmth/
oshun is golden laden
with the scent of untamed flowers
she is aware of the methods of males
can style the blood in yr fury
carry my anger with you
take this burnin up inside me
convey us triumphant/ out of this
glistenin with the the other way up skulls
arms hangin jagged with buckshot
received’t you share yr battles
let me let me free/ my time
is aware of
no
finish
eternally i’m magnificence
start of latest poets/warriors
ruddy fingered farmers
makers of gold material
properly in my loins/ infinitely
i’m yellow heavens & blue echoes received’t you pay attention
received’t you pay attention my music fontella sings
convey it to me/ convey it to me/ convey it to me
shango fought
in a person’s body such as you
anxious for/ to make a house
a land
one youngster
like shango’s daring
a toddler of the solar hearth
& flowers jewelled spherical within the soil
construct me a house/ someplace to go
i’m oshun’s daughter
i want a spot
to create
to make
stunning
yr life
a spot to sigh
love household
& dance the dance of the cosmos
rejoicin
for the righteous
have inherited
the earth
ntozake shange
4-24-72
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