black women mourn passing of ntozake shange

This weekend our community lost playwright and activist Ntozake Shange, who passed away at 70. An iconoclast in the theater world and a groundbreaking storyteller, Shange will be best remembered for her seminal work for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf. A collection of poems performed through dance choreography and set to music, for colored girls is an ode to “difficult” Black women who have suffered from misogynoiristic oppression, which are expressed in a diversity of ways. One of the first and very few public explorations of the particular abuse of Black women and our mental wellness, Shange challenged the types of narratives Black women were “supposed” to tell, breathing life into imperfect and beautifully full Black characters. She championed the representation of complex Black womanhood, inspiring countless Black creatives for decades to come.

We were blessed enough to host one of Shange’s last public performances recently at AFROPUNK Solution Sessions. Please enjoy her message to us, here.

“i found god in myself
and i loved her
i loved her fiercely “
—Ntozake Shange
Sleep well our dear guide and brilliant light. Sleep well and restfully.

— Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry) October 28, 2018

Complicated Black women, take care of yourselves, best you can. #NtozakeShange

— dream hampton (@dreamhampton) October 28, 2018

Ntozake Shange was the kind of person I mean when I say that working across form, boundary & genre isn’t new, but something we learned from our forebears, something we’ve done for a long time. She gave us a map to Black feminism, to art that laughs at borders. I’m grateful & sad.

— wikipedia “seasonal halloween name” brown (@eveewing) October 28, 2018

“rise up fallen fighters
unfetter the stars
dance with the universe
& make it ours”
― Ntozake Shange

— Najma Sharif (@overdramatique) October 27, 2018

There are complicated Black women that people prefer posthumously. I don’t have Ntozake’s talent, at all. But I know what it is to be one of those women. And I saw God in Ntozake, and I loved her fiercely.

— dream hampton (@dreamhampton) October 28, 2018