Product Description

Customer Reviews (11)

Glowing and Glorious
I loved the lyricism of this book.

This is a great performance piece.I downloaded it from Audible, had never heard Robin Miles before but she's an amazing actress.I can't wait until Colored Girls comes out!

Some Do...
I waited years for another book by Madame Shange, and I was not disappointed. Though very lengthy, the colorful, musical language immersed me in these characters, making and allowing me to care about them. As a Black woman who came of age in the 60's it also allowed me to see myself and many of the women who loved and nurtured me. Thanks to the authors for taking us on this literary journey.

Angelia Vernon Menchan

Black history through music
If this book is intended to celebrate the great contributions that African Americans have made to American music, then it falls flat.While the characters are well drawn, the story wanders around first in great detail and then in full sweeping time changes.

I found it very interesting to read a fictionalized (perhaps based on true life) story of the blacks who came from the plantations of South Carolina to make major contributions to the music scene in New York.But, this book is hard to read.The black southern dialect is just plain difficult to follow.It was a struggle all the way for me.

I hope, as someone else mentioned, that it will be made into a movie.Perhaps that way it will reach a wider audience with this magnificent saga if it is more accessible to the general public.

Some Good Characters Struggling to Breathe
Honestly, it was fairly easy to tell that two people authored this book.The writing vacillates between overwritten poetry and unabashed telling of the plot.Somewhere in the midst is a good story and even better characters, but they can't be heard in the mishmash of the narration.The second half, especially, suffers from rough and hasty plot developments and cliched, trite writing. Ever read a John Jakes' book and got tired of the fact that his characters meet every famous person alive in their day?Now add some overwritten description and you know this book.

A Great Read
Simply put, this was a refreshing book to read! I love the collaboration of the two sisters. It was very real written and I love the history and the connection of the family characters. I am very selective when reading books and I absolutely loved it!!! I read that it would be made into a film, with "Tyler Perry" (are you kidding me?) directing...that I have NO INTEREST, What so ever in seeing that. He may have the Ignorant character "Madea" make an appearance. I have never supported his movies...if that what they are called and never will! ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (6)

Growing Up Black
BETSEY BROWN is the story of a young Black girl growing up in St. Louis in the late 1950's.She is the eldest child in a large upwardly mobile family.Her father is a doctor and a socially conscious "race man" who takes his children to sit-ins and protests.Her mother is a social worker who wants to shield her children from the racially charged environment in which they are coming of age.

Like any young girl, Betsey fantasizes about her young life, longs for the attention of a certain young boy and is fascinated with the idea of love.While she is going through the ups and downs of growing up, integration takes place in the South.Betsey and her siblings are bussed to white schools in the name of racial advancement.The children have fears of what may lay ahead of them and the parents are conflicted in their decision.While in their new enviroment the children have various experiences and emotions. Betsey often feels like the weight of the entire race is on her shoulders and no one understands her struggle.

Ntozake Shange gives all of the children who grew up in the era ofsouthern integration a voice in BETSEY BROWN.The storyline is written in simple language with traces of southern dialect dispersed throughout.The novel gives a more visceral feel to the fear and uncertainty that children and their families had during the time of integration in America.This fear was pushed aside for the overall principle of advancement and not told in history books.While reading the novel, I felt like I was taken back in time to experience what, until now, I have only read about in textbooks and I enjoyed it.My only complaint is that Betsey's story ended too soon.

Reviewed by Aiesha Flowers
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

Betsey Brown by, Sara A.
Betsey Brown is the story of a girl named Betsey Brown who lives in the extremely racist city of St. Louis in 1959 with her big, black family.Betsey is trying to grow up this discrimitive community, and do normal things a kid would do. Her father, Mr. Brown, is obsessed with the Civil Rights Movement and his job as a doctor.Betsey's 7 brothers and sisters all provide a bizarre and interesting life for Betsey who is just trying to be a normal kid.
What does it mean to be an American?Betsey and her family, although African Americans of racist times, still practice their rights as American citizens.This is what America truly stands for.The equality of all people.Mr. Brown continually goes to Civil Rights rallies with his children.They express their opinions in movements that also show their American spirit.

Family Life
Betsy and her family is just trying to make it through everyday family problems. Betsey and her siblings school is integrated for the first time. The story is set in St Louis 1959. Betsy is a nice read.

Is it class or race?
For anyone who has read Cypress, Sassafrass and Indigo by Shange, this book will seem mediocre in comparison. On the other hand, what it is is an excellent social document depicting the experiences of an African-Americanfamily in St. Louis of the 1950's. It describes the pressure that thecombat of racism puts on a family---Betsey Brown runs away at the age of 12because she is being bused to a school full of "crackers." Betseydoesn't want to have to do everything for the "race"-she justwants to be a comfortable 12 year old girl with her neighborhood friends.

Other tensions happen between the husband and mother when the husband(Greer Brown, a doctor) and the wife (Jane Brown) a nurse argue overwhether their children should participate in civil rights demonstrations.The mother, like her daughter, is forced to leave home as she does not wanther children to participate. Later she returns to the man she loves, andher lovable, if noisy and rambunctious children.

Another important subtheme to this novel is that of class. The Browns are the creme de la cremeof African-American society, (Greer is one of only 5,000 African-Americandoctors in America at that time) Yet there is a constant stream ofcharacters who are not so graced; Miss Calhoun, a maid who lasts only oneday because the children don't like her, Regina, who is dismissed by theBrowns for having a boyfriend, and Carrie, who is forced to take care ofthe children and work as a domestic.Betsey herself is shamed by one ofher friends formaking Miss Calhoun miserable-as the childs mother isherself a maid, and Betsey begins to re-examine her attitudes from thatpoint on. Later she encounters Regina working as a prostitute-she has beenapparently abandoned by her boyfriend. All this quickly sends Betseyrunning back to her middle-class home.

If I learned anything from thisbook it is that life was hard for everyone characterized at this timeperiod. While being forced to confront prejudice forces both Betsey and hermother out of the home, confrontation with life outside the home sends themrunning back. The lesson of this book seems to be that upper-middle classblack women are forced to confront racism whether they like it ornot-either on behalf of their lesser favored sisters or because they wishto keep their families together. Their priviledged status does not makethem exempt from any fights on behalf of everyone else in their community.

Betsey is ME!
Betsey Brown is me when I was 13, and is still me 11 years later!I saw myself in the book and I was pleasently surprised to find that out.I fell in love with the book within the first few pages.The only complaint thatI have with the book is that its not LONGER!!!! ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (6)

Simply, one of my favorite books in the world
This is more than a book to me, Sassafras, Cypress and Indigo opened doors in thought and creativity in me that I wasn't aware existed.These three taught me things of my culture, (after all, I am a Geechee), men, family and love.This book isyour Mama's cooking, Christmas morning, sprituality outside your door, and the man you've been looking for, all in one place.I have cried with this book, written poetry with this book, loved with this book.I know that I should probably go into the storyline, the characters, and all that, but the only thing I really want to say is, BUY THIS BOOK!Read it and be prepared to love it.

Wasn't ready for it to be over...
This is my first time reading anything from Ntozake and I am very impressed with her writing.I like her literary style, content and excellent character development.I like the magical, mythical, poetic, familial, spirtitual and culinary elements delivered in this book.Highly recommended for avid readers of black authors...excellent for you library.

Lyrical form
One of the best books I have ever read. From the first page I was drawn into this world completely and never looked back. One of those rare books that I was devastated to have end, and moped around for months afterward with nothing to read because I knew nothing would be able to equal it. Miz Shange's lyrical prose is incomparable, beautiful and devastating in it's ability to make an intimate connection with the reader. I consider it a 'Must' read.
If you ever have a chance to see Ntozake Shange read in person, which I have, don't miss the opportunity. She is as rare and wonderful as her writing.

a readI long remember
this book left a lasting impression on me, and as I was just reminded of it, I wanted to excite other people's interest in a joyous read.after and while reading about the lovely 3 sisters, my daughter and I invented 3 puppets and called them by the sister's names.Perhaps I remember and recommend this book because it is one you can enjoy with an adolescent.

My Favorite Christmas Book!
A gift from Mama, one from their dead Father, and one from Santa, each found through a kind of scavenger hunt by clues left for each child under the Christmas tree, and each savored by the individual Child privately, free of "rivalries, jokes, and Christmas confusions."

What a marvellous, inventive Christmas tradition. If I had family, I would initiate this idea. The Christmas chapter is my favorite in this whole book. I also enjoy the recipes scattered throughout the book! I've tried a few and they're great!

I'm not going to analyze this book and try to guess at what the author was trying to do. Seems to me only the author could do that, anyway. All I can do is review this book based on what I got out of it. Besides a new Christmas ritual and some great recipes, what I got out of it was, a beautiful story about a mother and her three daughters, each with their own unique gifts: Sassafrass the weaver, Cypress the dancer, and Indigo the voodoo priestess/midwife. Their mother, Hilda Effania, wants the best for her girls, but she knows they each have to make their own way in the world; and when at the end of the story her three grown girls are reunited in the celebration of the newest member of the family, she lets them know that no matter what, they can always come home. I think this is a beautiful message, and I'm surprised this book hasn't become a movie by now. Not that being on video would improve the story, far be it; in fact, most movies based on books are so intent on sensationalism that it ends up being nothing like the book (think Waiting to Exhale). It's just that, if done right, it could become the type of touchy-feely message film that Touchstone films or even Hallmark should have jumped on long ago.

This is my favorite book, and I don't own/enjoy a lot of fiction. I've had this book about ten years now, my book has a better cover, and I enjoy pulling it down every Christmas just to read the Christmas day story again and again.

I'm seeing some references to this book as reading for grade schoolers. I think that may be a mistake. I wouldn't recommend this book for a young (prepubescent) child; the drug scenes and the passages involving sexuality are a little intense, I think, even though today's children are a lot more worldly about such things thanks to cable! ... Read more

Product Description

From its inception in California in 1974 to its highly acclaimed critical success at Joseph Papp's Public Theater and on Broadway, the Obie Award-winning for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf has excited, inspired, and transformed audiences all over the country. Passionate and fearless, Shange's words reveal what it is to be of color and female in the twentieth century. First published in 1975 when it was praised by The New Yorker for "encompassing...every feeling and experience a woman has ever had," for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf will be read and performed for generations to come. Here is the complete text, with stage directions, of a groundbreaking dramatic prose poem written in vivid and powerful language that resonates with unusual beauty in its fierce message to the world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (34)

For Colored girl who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf
This book is everything.......It was so great that I was sad that it ended.I recommend everyone read it!!!!

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide when the Rainbow is Enuf
Very Prompt service. Pleased with purchase.. allowed me to read the book before movie hit the big screen. Will purchase from this seller in future.

I've been there....
All I can say is excellent, heartfelt, and even moments where I totally have been able to relate!!

Necessary!!!!!
This was a good read years ago,and definately stands the test of time. Read this before you see the movie "COLORED GIRLS", it will open your prospective

Nothing Less Than Awesome!!
I had the priviledge of seeing the play version of this in 1975-6 and it was the most powerful and moving experience.It was wonderful and I can't thank my teacher enough even to this day for taking us girls to see the play.I remember how much this moved me like it was last week.

Teachers, parents - don't be afraid to have your pre-teens/tweens read this.The concepts are pretty serious, but the conversation you will have with them during and after reading this will be so enriching and educating.

Read it ... read it ... discuss it!

... Read more

Product Description

Jim Crow; Brown v. Board of Education; Bull Connor; KKK; Birmingham; the Lorraine Motel; Rosa; Martin; and Malcolm.

Customer Reviews (4)

Beautiful
This is a collection of 18 poems, from freed to the civil rights. Beginning with Booker T Washingtion School, 1941. About the first one room school for Black children and their teachers from Tuskgee.

There's a poem about Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. Brown's painting of Dr. King is amazing. Overall, Brown's art made me pause and take notice. They are simply could be hanging in a museum beautiful.

The three poems that stand out for me - Crying Trees, The Ku Klux Klan and Brother Malcolm.

Crying Trees - Is about Black men being lynched. Shange's words are enough to touch a readers heart. Though for this particular poem I noticed Brown's art first. A picture is worth a thousand words is a saying for a reason. Black men hanging from trees is an ugly truth of this countries past.

The Ku Klux Klan - This poem stood out for me for two reasons. 1. Like lynching, I think the Klan tends to get overlooked. 2. The last line is lovely.

"hatred dies hard death and the Klan aint dead yet"

Brother Malcolm - Malcolm X, seems to be excluded or forgotten from children's books. I am not sure which.

Fans of Ntozake Shange and Rod Brown will love We Troubled The Waters. This is a wonderful place to begin for people unfamiliar with their work. This collection will make you think, remember, teach and lead to discussions.
Ages 10 up

Powerful, emotional verse and images
In startling verse and paintings, Ntozake Shange and Rod Brown tell the stories of the pain and suffering experienced before the Civil Rights Movement, the actions and leaders that led to historic change, and the vision of America as a country where race and religion no longer separate Americans. Individual poetic and visual tribute is given to the heroes from Booker T. Washington, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X.The authors remember and honor those unknown Americans who were also part of the Civil Rights Movement--- the school children who learned and used their education to build up themselves, the cleaning woman and the garbage boys, and all those who stood up in protest.

Ntozake Shange and Rod Brown bring together powerful images of familiar history to those who lived through these times.WE TROUBLED THE WATER makes history come alive, allowing the reader/viewer to feel the suffering and the courage of those who lived through that time.WE TROUBLED THE WATER strikes the emotions in a very visceral way.The images and verse about real historic figures provide an educational resource for children (ages 9-12).Several lesser known historical figures (Marcus Garvey and Bull Connor) are mentioned, giving direction for those inquisitive readers who want to explore more history of the Civil Rights Movement.Some of the most compelling and shocking images emerge from the authors use of nature in the beginning river scene, "Crying Trees" and "Road Kill." These images trouble one deeply and yet few images anywhere capture the emotion behind the suffering and call for justice as these do.These images and words are not for the faint of heart.They haunt and trouble even those adult readers familiar with the Civil Rights Movement from study and having lived through those times.

WE TROUBLED THE WATER is a powerful, emotional look inside an important part of American history.WE TROUBLED THE WATER reaches that poetic place inside a reader/viewer, that quiet place that recognizes suffering and cries out for justice.WE TROUBLED THE WATER is an important resource for teaching American history because the images and poetry bring alive the very heart of the period in a way an academic text is unlikely to do.WE TROUBLED THE WATER shows the power, energy and vibrancy in history and society.WE TROUBLED THE WATER would also be a great choice for the bookshelves of those adult readers who lived through these times.Few books capture the suffering, struggle and hope as well.WE TROUBLED THE WATER would be a great resource for parents and grandparents to share with their children and grandchildren, reading aloud and sharing their memories of this period.Whether this book is used as a resource for teaching or during Black History Month celebrations or read by individuals and families, WE TROUBLED THE WATER is unforgettable.A keeper!

COURTESY OF BOOK ILLUMINATIONS

This is a hauntingly beautiful, amazing book the likes of which we may not see again!STUNNING!
The children and their teacher proudly gathered together in front Booker T. Washington School in 1941.They were proud and they would learn to read, write and sign their names so they would one day be able to vote. In another setting someone's mother, perhaps one of theirs, struggles on her hands and knees to scrub a floor she has no ownership in.She mustn't stop because she has children to raise.Three garbage boys pose in front of the cans they have to tend to.They can't understand why people throw away perfectly good food while their bellies grumble with hunger.

It was a white world and what wasn't white was labeled "colored."A young boy, holding his little brother's hand, shows him two words he mustn't forget.Colored.White.He has to know the difference in a Jim Crow world.Shot gun houses can fit thirteen people or more and a little boy can sleep "right neath the kitchen table/ ever so warm & smellin so good."Then there are the "Crying Trees" where someone's son is hanging.They aren't much better than "Roadkill" in some people's eyes.Later Rosa, Martin Luther King, Jr., Brother Malcolm would care and the signs would come down.No more colored.No more white.Just people.

When I read this book I had no idea where to place it in the realm of children's literature.It is one of the most amazing, shocking and touching visual and poetic treatises on man's inequality to man I've seen in a book intended for the middle school child.The artwork was hauntingly beautiful.I've never quite seen anything like it and probably won't again for some time.Perfection is very difficult to duplicate.This is a masterpiece that you won't want to pass up if you are interested in the history of the African American!

Merciful Heavens
I am stunned, as I sit here, trying to think how to describe this masterpiece.First of all, if you can get past the dedication page, without a gasp, and a few moments of shocked disbelief, then you did not look at it correctly, and you must go back, and look at it again; because the ugliness it shows us, there in the midst of the beautiful, calm, river painting, will take your breath away.

Then, all through this collection of astonishing poems--astonishing, yes, because tersely, briefly, vividly, they paint pictures just as brilliant as the ones on the pages they grace, somehow--there are the twined threads of terrible, terrible grief, and aspiring, uplifting hope.

I am fifty, white, and grew up in the North; I remember so many of the scenes from this book played out on the nightly news, and I still cannot believe it went on, don't want to believe it went on, but I know it did.It hurts to know it, but it helps, and somehow heals a little bit,to read great, great works like this one.

Thank you, Ms. Shange, and Mr. Brown.I cannot say enough good things about this book.
... Read more

Product Description

Completely repackaged, this spirited celebration of the African-American soul breathes new life in the rhythmic poetry of beats and movements for which she is renowned. Winner of the Tony Award and the Obie Award for For Colored Girls Who Have Con-sidered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf, Ntozake Shange`s poetry is considered some of the most influential in African-American culture.

Customer Reviews (2)

Spoken word artists must peep this...
NAPPY EDGES by Ntozake Shange is a collection of poetry written during the
Seventies on a myriad of issues in the poet's trademark style.Shange creates
a rhythm that leaps from the page and lyrically dances around the room.The
words beg to be spoken aloud, and the emotions implore you to feel them.

Shange's message is often pro-woman as she deftly builds phrases that
sometimes seem unrelated to form a heavy lesson.Also included in this
collection is a speech that she gave to a conference in which she discussed the
poet's right to individual expression.She challenges readers to know their
poets and to know what their individual sound or flow is like.

It's hard for me to pick one favorite poem from this compilation.Each poem
speaks to a different place and a different time.Nonetheless, this is a
volume of poetry that needs to be on the shelves of all verse lovers and on
the lips of all those who strive to express themselves lyrically.

Reviewed by Diane Marbury
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

My favorite book in the entire world
Ntozake Shange is a genius, a goddess, but above all else, a poet. This book revolutionized the way I viewed poetry.As she says, "A poem shd fill you up with something/ make you swoon, change yr mind or make it up/apoem shd happen to you like cold water or a kiss." My favorite poemsin here are "Advice," "Between a Dancer and a Poet,"and "An Invitation to My Friends."She makes connections betweenmusic and poetry and I came away (never really away- the book is always inmy soul) with new spirit and passion that was inside me all along, but thenit resonated, "Yes, yes, yes." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Poetry that matters
Ntozake Shange is most famous for her theatrical dance piece "forcolored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf." But this 1983 poetry collection shows her to be a powerful wordsmith aswell: these poems evoke a childhood of intimate knowledge, an adulthood ofanger and loss and the desire for change, and a lover who isn't about totake any more garbage from anybody.Shange's voice slips from a poetictone to a street slang and back again smoothly and seamlessly.There aremoments I will never forget in this collection: the opening trio of poemsare a tribute to Duke Ellington, among others: when she says "ithasn't always been this way / ellington was not a street / robeson was nomere memory" I could feel the words strike me with the insistent lureof song referenced by its title: "Mood Indigo."As one of herlines says, "our doors opened like our daddy's arms," thiscollection will pull you in and make you feel the poet's world in a way fewpoets are capable of in this day of polite, obscure poetry. ... Read more

Product Description
Paperback ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

FIND A PIECE OF YOURSELF
This is her best book in my opion!! It has something for everyone. Full of colorful characters that everyone can relate to with a no holding back choice tongue. Travel through experiences from a woman sick and tired of hearing her man's apologies to another woman's dilemma of watching her vietnam tortured boyfriend drop their children out the window. I think the beauty of this choreopoem is that every woman finds her little gold at the end of her own rainbow. Enjoy.

A book that celebrates woman even when she is weak. Rich!
Shange's imagery is hypnotizing.She immediately creates a realm of intimacy between you, her word, and colored girls.Shange takes you through a personal journey of yourself through the girls.

wonderful workdisplaying the joy, and pain of colored girl
shange uses the arts of poetry, music and dance to create a spectacularrainbow of beauty,sorrow , joy and pain brought to the readerin a sometimes funny , sometimes serious manner in "laugh but don't laugh" imagery she creates. it's a celebration of life, struggle and woman ... Read more

Product Description
Shange's lyrical poem is a tribute to the language of music and the magical, often mystical, rhythms that connect people. Music defines who we are as individuals, the places where we live, and how we exist within our communities. Music is life.

Written in a syncopated style that has its own melody, the poem is perfectly married to twenty-one extraordinary and diverse works from Romare Bearden who once said, "I paint in the tradition of the blues."

Here is a unique and visionary book that speaks, indeed sings, to both children and adults and is, at once, compelling, profond, and entertaining. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

great book
I received this as a gift shortly after my son was born.It's one of his favorites.We've read it several times a week at bedtime and naptime -- probably 50 times and counting, and we both still find something new and beautiful on every reading.

Great Gifts
This series of books makes a great gift for young and old alike. I have given them on four separate occassions and they were always loved and cherished.

Beautiful book
What a beautiful book!The poem is moving and the illustrations fit perfectly. It can be used with many age groups. I would highly recommend this book to parents and teachers.

Fell in love
Someone read this book to me when I was young. Ever since then I've been inspired to write. I love this book. The word use by Ntozake is refreshing. Her poetry is very original. She has accomplished a lot, because it's suitable for all age groups.

Great Book
This is a great children's book and a great poem about music. It is a wonderful book to read to a child about music appreciation. The illustrations are wonderful! ... Read more

Product Description
A classic, indeed perhaps the best of the Mapplethorpe
books. And for many most certainly the most
typical Mapplethorpe, now available once again
thanks to this re-edition.
The Black Book, first published in 1986, presents 96
formally stringent and highly erotic nudes, all of them
photographs of black men, either as full figures, or
staged as details, as fragments of their bodies.
Stylized as classical statues or provocatively in all
their presence and sensuous radiance. Black-andwhite
photography was Mapplethorpe s preferred
medium. And his obsessive aesthetics was based on
completely mastering it, as this enabled him to visualize
any number of tonal gradations and penetrate
deep into the very pores of the gleaming black skin.
It is a method that reached a climax in these images.
The Black Book, Mapplethorpe s homage to the black
male body, has always been one of the most important
visual contributions to the discussion on beauty,
sensuality, and sexuality in photography. ... Read more

Product Description

In a reflective tribute to the African-American community of old, noted poet Ntozake Shange recalls her childhood home and the close-knit group of innovators that often gathered there. These men of vision, brought to life in the majestic paintings of artist Kadir Nelson, lived at a time when the color of their skin dictated where they could live, what schools they could attend, and even where they could sit on a bus or in a movie theater.

Yet in the face of this tremendous adversity, these dedicated souls and others like them not only demonstrated the importance of Black culture in America, but also helped issue in a movement that "changed the world." Their lives and their works inspire us to this day, and serve as a guide to how we approach the challenges of tomorrow. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Bought on recommendation from a kindergarten teacher
I had never read the poem by Ntozake Shange before reading this book. It seems to be a big hit at bedtime, perfect for preschoolers. Definitely a starter book to teach young children about Black history because one of the main characters is a small child.

What? Not a single notable woman?
This is a great book to teach kids about African American history and the illustrations are beyond fantastic.

But didn't the author know ONE SINGLE notable woman she could have named in the book? Hard to imagine.

Beautiful Book
This is a beautiful charming book.It's a poem that is depicted in illustration.The images come off the page.With reference to men like Dubois, Dizzy and Robeson it captures the spirit of children being raised amongst men.

Transcendent
You know this is a memorable book right away.

On the flyleaf, young Ntozake Shange (born Paulette Williams in Trenton, New Jersey on October 18, 1948) sits on a grand piano, clutching precious black vinyl, while overhead hangs a detail of a picture from the harlem Renaissance.

You turn to the first page of text, and, against robin's egg blue, inside a darker blue background, Shange begins her story:"It hasn't always been this way.ellington was not a street."On the facing page of this oversized book is a picture so beautiful you could frame it, a street scene of umbrella'd people walking under a street sign signifying "ELLINGTON ST," with fog-locked but luminous buildings seen in quarter-profile.

She continues:

robeson no mere memory
dubois walked up my father's stairs...
...dizzy's hair was not always grey

Kadir Nelson's powerful, evocative images accompanying the prose poem. Big Paul Robeson, actor, singer, writer, activist, exile, towers over young Shange, in an entryway filled with color and art and taste. (Shange, indeed, came from an upper middle class background; her father a military surgeon and her mother an educator and psychiatric social worker.)

The elderly Dubois, cane in hand, walks with dignity in the handclasp of her welcoming father, approaching a stately grandfather's clock and young Shange, clutching her doll.

Percussionist Ray Baretto and trumpet player Diizy Gillespie greet her on the porch, autumn leaves echoing the autumnal colors of the brick and wood house, while Dizzy holds one finger to his lips and fills his cheeks, all to the curious delight of the little girl.

One by one they gather, these legends re-visited through magical grace of Shange and the mastery of Kadir Nelson. It's a time when animated conversation ("politics as necessary as collards/music even in our dreams") belies the current "DON'T WALK" sign now commanding the street."Our house was filled with all kinda folks..." (this is no elitist reminiscence) "our doors open like our daddy's arms held us safe and loved" until finally all the guests assemble in a full family portrait: Robeson, Diz, Ellington, the doo-wop group "The Clovers," Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, former Presient and Prime Minister of Ghana, the doo-wop singer Earlington "Sonny Til" Tilghman, as well as the "Clovers" ("Love Potion No. 9"), and others, looking straight out at us, daring us, to paraphrase writer Stephen Leacock, to close fill the gap between what we aspire to and what we achieve.

*****
The book references the most famous visitors with capsule biographies on a penultimate two-page spread, and the last page, the color of indigo, repeats the entire text in poetry form.As for the "truth" of the book...

This book is art without announcing itself as art. Its feelings are true and understandable by anyone with an open heart, no matter what the background.Does it matter whether all these people came one by one, let alone gathered together one momentous day at her father's house?I feel like I've come to know Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, James Joyce, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk.We say, after all that someone's work "speaks" to us, though we've never heard them.For the record... We know (from a 1986 interview with Brenda Lyons) that visitors to young Ntozake Shange's house included, among others, Dizzy Gillespie, Walter White (Executive Secretary of the NAACP from 1931-1955), Paul Robeson, Miles Davis, Chuck Berry, and W. E. B. Du Bois. For the record...An exhilarating book, a work of uncompromising beauty.

Ellington was Not a Street
Excellent illustrations, this would be a good review of early 20th century black history. It doesn't tell you anything new and is not the story on Ellington that I was looking for. Still well done, just very short. ... Read more

Product Description
From its inception in California in 1974 to its highly acclaimed critical success at Joseph Papp’s Public Theater and on Broadway, the Obie Award–winning for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf has excited, inspired, and transformed audiences all over the country. Passionate and fearless, Shange’s words reveal what it meant to be of color and female in the twentieth century. First published in 1975, when it was praised by The New Yorker for “encom­passing . . . every feeling and experience a woman has ever had,” for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf will be read and performed for generations to come. Here is the complete text, with stage directions, of a groundbreaking dramatic prose poem written in vivid and powerful language that resonates with unusual beauty in its fierce message to the world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Three Pieces
With for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, Ntozake Shange emerged a a formidable voice in the American theater. In these three plys, she brilliantly recasts traditional forms to capture the essenses of the lives of black people: Spell #7 is a black magic and variety show; A Photograph: Lovers in Motion, a sensual melodrama of intersecting lives and loves; and Boogie Woogie Landscapes, a stream of consciousness verse play.
--- from book's back cover ... Read more

Product Description
Ntozake Shange offers this personal culinary memoir, with dashes of literature and pinches of music, in her rousing tribute to black cuisine as a food of life that reflects the spirit and history of a people. With recipes such as "Collard Greens to Bring You Money," Shange introduces us to 'Afro-Atlantic foodways:' a cuisine born on the slave ships of the Middle Passage, and shared by all members of the African Diaspora. If I Can Cook/You Know God Can is a vivid story of the migration of a people that opens our hearts and minds to what it means for "black folks in the Western Hemisphere to be full." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Cooking
I loved the book. Would recommend to family and friends.



Carmen

IfI Can Cook, You know God Can
I typed it and now I can't find it and don't want to repeat whatI have just typed. I have no photo.

Delicious!
Autobiographical and historical and cultural all rolled up in one. With the holidays coming up, these great stories and recipes of great african and african-american dishes--dishes from people and lands of color--would go perfectly with each serving of yams, blackeyed peas and rice and collards. Foods of defiance, comfort, strength. Presented by the superb Ntozake Shange. (For my two cents, all the schoolkids ought to be taught how really influential Ntozake was in black entertainment, period, not just literature. But that sounds like a discussion for another review.)

Experience African-American experience through culinary hist
I am not an African-American but through Shange's words I can feel the grief, the sorrow, and the triumphs of the African-American experience.By talking about food, which everybody needs and relates to, she paints a farmore vivid picture of the African people in the Diaspora than a scholarlyhistorian might.Many of her recipes call for ingredients I've hardlyheard of, but her evocative descriptions of the food almost make me able totaste it. ... Read more

Product Description
A young African-American girl is traumatized when a gang attacks her and her brother on their way home from school and spray-paints her face white. Based on a true story. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Powerful story, Great to use in a classroom of all ages
Whitewash is a story based on a similar incident that happened in the Bronx in 1992 when an elementary school aged girl's face was assaulted and had her face painted white. Though one reviewer found this book too violent for "impressionable minds" I find this book important because it is powerful and it SHOULD force impressionable minds to confront issues such as racism. I am elementary school teacher and this is a wonderful book to use a classroom. It can be used in classrooms with high school and college students as well. Also parents who are looking for a book that does not skirt issues, this is a great book to read to your kids when you are reading to share important issues such as the racism that continues to exist in our society.

If you want a way to really address social justice issues in a classroom or with a group of children this book will not disappoint you. Because this book is powerful, it should lead to much to discussion so if you are going to read this book to children make sure you are fully prepared to engage the children in a lively discussion. This IS NOT a book to just read for fun. You are not doing you or the children you read this book to, any justice if you do not discuss the issues this book presents. I know the book is quite costly so I suggest picking up this book from the library. This book is must read.

Not for young children.
I read this book and found it to be too violent for young children.This book is very graphic and can be very upsetting for young impressionable minds.I might recommend this book to much older children of around 10-12 years of age, but definitely not younger than this.It is not appropriate for young children who should be getting a positive element from the books they read. Preschool age children do not have the ability to comprehend the material presented in this book.

A disturbing story
"Whitewash" is a children's book that combines a story by Ntozake Shange with illustrations by Michael Sporn. The book jacket states that the story is "[b]ased on a series of true incidents."

Helene-Angel is a young, urban African-American girl. She and her brother Mauricio are attacked by a gang of racist white kids who paint the girls' face a ghostly shade of white. The story deals with the aftermath of this repulsive crime.

Shange has clearly approached this troubling material with admirable intentions, but I found the results unsatisfying. I felt that the ultimate message of racial reconciliation was not powerful enough to offset the nature of the crime. And a significant plot thread is left hanging. I fear that this book may be too upsetting for some kids; I recommend parental or teacher guidance.

Amazingly Powerful Story
This is such a POWERFUL book! This unforgettable story addresses the effect race, prejudice, and discrimination has on children. It is an example of how traumatizing these types of incidents would be for a young child to experience. By painting a black persons face white is stripping them of their pride and identity. It is important for children to learn at an early age that everyone is equal and should be treated fairly. Children should be educated about various races and cultures so that they are more accepting of difference. Thess are valuable lessons for children to learn and the sooner the better.

This is a story of Helene-Angel, a girl damaged by a terrible racial incident. Helene-Angel and her older brother Mauricio were walking home from school when a gang surrounded them. The boys called them racial names and shoved Mauricio out of the way while they painted Helene-Angels' face white. Even after her grandmother scrubbed her face, she could still feel the itchy white paint. Her grandmother recalls the stories she told them about the beat-up bleeding black children in the South, but she had never seen a black girl painted white. Helene-Angel would not come out of her room for a week, her grandmother left food by the door and whispered sweet things to her. She reminded Helene-Angel that she was beautiful, brave, and a hero of her race. On Monday, her grandmother made her come out of her room and told her to be strong. Helene-Angel went outside to play with her classmates, who were very supportive. She held her brothers' hand and said, "WE'VE GOT A RIGHT TO BE HERE, TOO."

I highly recommend this book! Five stars doesn't do this book justice...it gets that for the illustrations alone. This is essential reading for children and adults. ... Read more

Product Description

Walking many miles to school in the dusty road, young Coretta knew, too well, the unfairness of life in the segregated south.

Customer Reviews (2)

A must-buy for every primary school library
This is one of the BEST read-alouds for parents, teachers and librarians.The pictures are magnificent, and I have read this to my 2nd, 3rd and 4th Grade classes over the past two weeks, for MLK day.A beautiful companion to "Martin's Big Words," as the pictures complement each other.Highly recommended!

Sing a Poem of the Dream
Now what makes this book unique is that it carries the sound of poem, spiritual, song as one might associate with this woman that stood and held the hand of a leader, two people together taking on a journey to place we can call today a Promised Land. A place where dreams are born into being.
It tells in a hushed calm about where she started, Coretta who loved to sing,and then like a brush might sweep across a canvas,it crosses us over, over into a kind of melodic telling of our national prayer. One that speaks of better days, all children at a table, concern, caring and mighty truths. A hope that all people might one day enjoy the prosperity and the chance as well as the reality of a fair opportunity to exist in a country that wrote creeds this way, creeds it often does not fulfill, not yet, not without struggle, strife and difficulty. Born in the darkness and beauty of a people that built a great nation. But a people that it kept down, who in turn kept it moving forward, in part because of woman like Coretta Scott.

The book is beautifully, largely, inspiring, and boldly illustrated with pictures that do remind me of the WPA and that so fits, that illustrated, painted style fits the telling of this poem. Nothing better would carry the feel of the artists than those of that time in the last century who raised the awareness of the necessity of the arts, the power of the arts, and the potential of the arts to speak in the ways of the heart path. Especially in a time of need. Like this time. Of the soul journey. As song does waft to form into our being the music of being heard.

I hate to tred my path alone, so I will share two personal responses to this book. The first involves my own mother. My mother became involved with the issues of treating others fairly and in my youth, in the 1960's onward she connected with the NAACP among other groups. At some point in West Virginia she shared a lunch or maybe two luncheons, as she is correcting me, with Mrs. King. Coming home the first time (and I would date this to the early 80's) I recall her talking to me of Mrs. King's courage, calm, solid determination, thoughtfulness in answering her. She could have left the national stage, raised her children, remarried, she could have and many would have been afraid, locked herself in fear, and wisely chosen to be outside the fray anymore, she had given enough. But to know her, or to meet her, is to meet the mettle of this couple. Neither stepped away. Both went where they were asked to go, asked to fight for justice. It is exactly what it is. The content of their character. And no one could miss that. My mother related this clearly, and handed me an autographed book that she treasured getting. For me.I recall her telling me that she felt Mrs. King like a rock. I believe this was how she might have functioned for her family. As the ground we walk and tread, knowing a path and a way. I read her auto-biography a powerful, inspiring work. It helped me to build my being. The one part of me that teaches in poverty areas and must constantly each day bring a sincere understanding to the work I do, and a worthwhile heart as well. This book too, honors that.

The second thing I might share is the reaction today to reading this to my students. It is not a long text. They were reverent, hush, calm. They recognized places like the Washington Monument. They connected through recent events at the Inaugural and our reading about President Obama and Dr. King. They felt value in the words. They understood notions of separate schools and how we are traveling on a road ever working to be more just. To improve upon the past. They saw the idea of "process" and "progress." And how do I know? They told me these things. They had an understanding that the spouse of a leader like Dr. King must be dedicated and indeed spun of cloth very valuable and precious.

So, I think, if you would give this to a classroom, to a library, to a school, to a student, you have done a very good thing, it will aid in the work we are really here to do.



... Read more

Product Description
Words and images come together in this inspiring collaboration between renowned poet Ntozake Shange and Kamoinge Inc., a group of acclaimed photographers whose work documents and celebrates the African-American experience.

Collaborations between writers and photographers have provided African Americans with important focus for issues of identity and representation -- or lack thereof -- ever since the first publication of The Sweet Flypaper of Life by Langston Hughes and Roy DeCarava in 1955. Frank Stewart, with his fellow photographers in Kamoinge Inc., and Ntozake Shange -- a longtime fan of photography -- were inspired by this landmark work and committed themselves to continuing the tradition and the artistic conversation into this first decade of this new millennium.

In 1963, Roy DeCarava -- renowned photographer and first president of the Kamoinge Workshop -- set the aesthetic and philosophical tone of the group in response to biased representations of African Americans in the media. As image-makers, the Kamoinge members have sought to shed positive light on their subjects, and to demystify Black life in America. With stunning images from such acclaimed photographers as Anthony Barboza, Adger W. Cowans, Ming Smith Murray, andpoems by Ntozake Shange, one of the most accomplished writers of her time, The Sweet Breath of Life is a rich and thought-provoking book, destined to become a classic work of American photography and literature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Timeless...
i turn on John Coltrane, preferrably the Love Supreme Album, i'll allow the stereo to switch to A Miles Davis Mood and get Kind Of Blue while i turn the pages to these Iconic Photos...these Iconic Poems; experiencing a world before and after my time, over and over again. A Jewel and Heirloom. Timeless.

faces
This book is a collection of photographs of African-Americans. Ntozake Shange has written a free-verse response to each each photo. The photos are moving and expressive on their own,and the book would be wonderful if it were simply the beautiful faces. But Ms. Shange's words evoke worlds of emotion, memories, and contemplation. Enjoy the book the first time without reading her musings. Then start over and read for a whole new experience. I'll bet you come back and buy a couple more copies to share with friends like I did.
Mike V ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Liliane
This book is a confusing book.It uses images that are vivid in every way imaginable.Liliane is a young woman who is on a quest for her true self. She doesn't want to come to grips with the facts of her parents.Shange strings together memories, dreams, and expectations of a young black woman to bring her to life as we read about her.Victor Jesus, Zoom, Thayer and Sawyer are her lovers who reveal a different side of Liliane that her family and friends aren't fully aware of.

Lyrically beautiful prose
I had only known Ntozake Shange through her choreopoem, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide, so I was very curious about her prose writing. I found this book very beautifully written and well crafted.This book is about an artist, Liliane, who journeys into memories of her childhood.As a product of an interracial marriage, Liliane must struggle to define herself and what color means in her life. ... Read more

Product Description
Ntozake Shange's best plays reissued in the new Contemporary Dramatists series This collection spans twenty years and brings together her works 'for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf' "Shange's poetry is mordantly witty, unpredictable and disciplined. It has to do with love and death and the deepest feelings of young women - in particular, black young women" (New Yorker) 'spell# 7' "Shange's sinewy, erotic, insistent poetry snakes through this play - a powerful an dpassionate evocation of black culture suppressed, or just plain ignored" (Time Out), The Love Space Demands: "Focusing on the experiences of black women but drawing on an awesome range of cross-cultural references, her words ooze with earthy sensuality...a remarkable, lyrical experience of live poetry" (Independent)."Shange's language is pure gold" (City Limits) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

If emotion can be displayed in a pure form then here it is.
'Plays 1,' by Ntozake Shange brings to mind performaces of like such as those currently being pioneered by Jazz Exchange (dance company). One can imagine, with little effort, a simple space in which the passion of life is performed before an audience. It allows one to visualize a mix of: jazz; poetry; fluid movement; as scenarios, emotion & reflection are brought to life by her poetic verse. If you are new to Shange this provides the essential compendium at a reasonable price; skip straight to "The love space demands," to experience her at her very best. ... Read more