Description: In this deeply personal book, the celebrated writer reflects on what it means to be an artist, a woman, and a woman of color through a beautiful combination of memoir and essay. She describes where her love for creative forces began--in her childhood home, a place where imagination reigned and boredom wasn't allowed. The essays tell stories ranging from the poignant origin of her celebrated play for colored girls to why Shange needed to deconstruct the English language to make that production work, from the intensity of the female experience and the black experience as separate entities to the difficulty of living both lives simultaneously; from the intense love of jazz bestowed on her by her father to a similar obsession with dance, which came from her mother. With deep sincerity, attention, and her legendary candor, Shange's collection progresses from the public arena to the private, gathering along the way the passions and insights of an author who writes with "such exquisite care and beauty that anybody can relate to her message" (Clive Barnes, "The New York Times").
Brief description:
Ntozake Shange, fearless in her quest to affirm the realities of women of color, demonstrates that her name reflects her approach to both her art and her life. In the Zulu language of Xhosa, ntozake means "she who comes with her own things," and shange means "she who walks like a lion." She has written numerous novels, works of poetry, essays and screenplays, a plethora of critically acclaimed plays, as well as children's books. She is the recipient of the 2016 Langston Hughes Medal.