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Ntozake Shange 1948–

(Born Paulette Williams) Black American playwright, poet, novelist, essayist, and lecturer.

Shange's first major work, the choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf, depicts the emotional and often suicidal despair of black women in an oppressive society. A reflection of her own emotional pain, Shange's feminist stance urges self-realization and independence for black women. Most critics praised the exciting theatricality of For Colored Girls but were disappointed in her more conventional play, Photography. They also felt that her adaptation of Mother Courage and Her Children failed to realize the complexity of Brecht's original drama.

(See also CLC, Vol. 8 and Contemporary Authors, Vols. 85-88.)

1. Introduction
2. Toni Cade Bambara
3. Martin Gottfried
4. Richard Eder
5. Harriet Gilbert
6. Christopher Sharp
7. Don Nelsen
8. Richard Eder
9. John Simon
10. Michael S. Harper
11. John Russell Taylor
12. Mel Gussow
13. John Simon
14. Frank Rich
15. Carol P. Christ
16. Sandra Hollin Flowers
17. Copyright