“And this is for Colored girls who have considered suicide but are moving to the ends of their own rainbows.” These affirming words are found in the book For Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide/ When The Rainbow is Enuf, the iconic collection of poetry by author and playwright Ntozake Shange.
After creating a body of work that centered and celebrated Black women, Shange died in her sleep two years ago today, Oct. 27. With permission from her estate, MADAMENOIRE is honoring the brilliant playwright’s legacy by publishing an excerpt from the book, Sing a Black Girl’s Song: The Unpublished Work of Ntozake Shange.
The book is a posthumous collection of some of Shange’s essays, poems and plays. It was edited by Dr Imani Perry, a MacArthur Genius Fellow, and the foreword was written by New York Times bestselling Author Tarana Burk.
Shange’s long list of accomplishments include an Emmy Award, a Tony Award, two Obie Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship and more. Yet, beyond the impressive list of professional accolades, for many Black women, the legacy of the gifted poet and novelist was immeasurable. As MN previously noted, “She embodied Black feminism and Black liberation. She was free in her body and in her art.” The award-winning playwright created a beautiful legacy by crafting intentional and loving work.
May this poem, entitled “Oshun’s Daughter,” serve as another example of the late novelist creating work with love and intention.
oshun’s daughter
i come to you in feathered gowns
& answer questions
you cannot ask
i dance cross candlelit skies
singin low like celia cruz
round drums
swayin in spangles
i am the carnival queen
ma rainey swingin low
seekin dawn
wishin you life
oshun’s daughter
grows red she grows mute
in the wickedness of the subway
strangles in her own cries
razors in yr face shots blazin in darkness
won’t you share yr breath with me
breathe my ancientness toward yr soul
& swoon
in my heat/
oshun is golden laden
with the scent of wild flowers
she knows the ways of men
can taste the blood in yr fury
carry my anger with you
take this burnin up inside me
bring us triumphant/ out of this
glistenin with the upside down skulls
arms hangin jagged with buckshot
won’t you share yr battles
let me let me free/ my time
knows
no
end
eternally i am beauty
birth of new poets/warriors
ruddy fingered farmers
makers of gold cloth
well in my loins/ infinitely
i am yellow heavens & blue echoes won’t you listen
won’t you listen my song fontella sings
bring it to me/ bring it to me/ bring it to me
shango fought
in a man’s frame like you
anxious for/ to make a home
a land
one child
like shango’s bold
a child of the sun fire
& flowers jewelled round in the soil
build me a home/ somewhere to go
i am oshun’s daughter
i need a place
to create
to make
beautiful
yr life
a place to sigh
love family
& dance the dance of the cosmos
rejoicin
for the righteous
have inherited
the earth
ntozake shange
4-24-72
