For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf
by Ntozake, Shange
- Used
- Hardcover
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- Very Good +/Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 0026098407
- ISBN 13
- 9780026098403
- Seller
-
Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Macmillan, 1977. 1st Edition. 1/2 cloth. Very Good +/Very Good. Boards with half cloth. Previous owner's name in ink on front fly leaf. DJ price clipped. First edition. Signed by author on title page.
Reviews
On Jul 3 2022, a reader said:
“for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf” is a book that is unflinching, raw and real in its expression of Black female identity. The book is a 'choreopoem', sung and enacted on stage by actors. The collection consists of twenty poems narrated by women wearing the colors of the rainbow, except for one wearing brown. The poems talk about the “dark phases” in the lives of Black women growing up in America.
Ntozake Shange is frank and unapologetic in her verse. The poems are deliberately punctuated and have a style of their own. The themes of sexual, physical and psychological violence on Black women pervade the poems, lending them an ominous tone. While some poems are glimpses of painful moments for Black women in a male world, other poems discuss the women’s own insecurities and anxieties. Notably, one has to have an understanding of Black culture and history if they want to comprehend the local jargon and the numerous references.
Besides its startling subjects, the poems simmer with hidden resentment and anger. For instance, “We gotta dance to keep from crying, we gotta dance to keep from dying.”- Although impactful, these lines flirt with fantasy. The detailing of the events is laudable and makes it all the more tangible. The movement of the events for the most part, seem natural.
At certain moments, the stilted style of the verse distances the audience from the powerful narrative it wishes to tell. It is not an easy read for those used to conventional verse on comfortable subjects. There seems to be no apparent connection between the poems, except that they deal with the experiences of Black women. The poems are written for the stage and therefore will succeed more as a production than as a book of poetry. Admittedly, I wondered if the rainbow at the end is worth all the ordeals these women have to undergo. However, the book ends in the celebration of the individual and hope for the future.
Undeniably, the poems portray the “metaphysical dilemma of being alive, being a woman, being colored” in a predominantly oppressive society that hinders their progress at every turn. for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf is bold for the stories it chooses to tell, but will those stories outlive the test of time is a question worth asking.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Toadlily Books, ABAA/ILAB (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 1
- Title
- For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf
- Author
- Ntozake, Shange
- Format/Binding
- 1/2 cloth
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good +
- Jacket Condition
- Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- 1st Edition
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10
- 0026098407
- ISBN 13
- 9780026098403
- Publisher
- Macmillan
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1977
Terms of Sale
Toadlily Books, ABAA/ILAB
30 day return guarantee, with full refund.
About the Seller
Toadlily Books, ABAA/ILAB
Biblio member since 2020
Atlanta, Georgia
About Toadlily Books, ABAA/ILAB
Member of ABAA/ILAB. On-line sales and the occasional book fair.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Title Page
- A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the...
- Price Clipped
- When a book is described as price-clipped, it indicates that the portion of the dust jacket flap that has the publisher's...