For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf
by Shange, Ntozake
- Used
- Condition
- UsedGood
- ISBN 10
- 0684843269
- ISBN 13
- 9780684843261
- Seller
-
Imperial, Missouri, United States
2 Copies Available from This Seller
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About This Item
UsedGood. The item shows wear from consistent use, but it remains in good condition and works perfectly. All pages and cover are intact (including the dust cover, if applicable). Spine may show signs of wear. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting. May NOT include discs, access code or other supplemental materials.
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
- Off The Shelf LLC (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 4WILKM00JV7F
- Title
- For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf
- Author
- Shange, Ntozake
- Book Condition
- UsedGood
- Quantity Available
- 2
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10
- 0684843269
- ISBN 13
- 9780684843261
- Publisher
- Scribner
- Place of Publication
- Old Tappan, New Jersey, U.s.a.
- This edition first published
- 1997-09
Terms of Sale
Off The Shelf LLC
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Off The Shelf LLC
Biblio member since 2021
Imperial, Missouri
About Off The Shelf LLC
Hello! We are a used book seller out of St Louis Missouri.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....