Nov 14, 2009

for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf | Introduction

for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf is a choreopoem, a poem (really a series of 20 separate poems) choreographed to music. Although a printed text cannot convey the full impact of a performance of for colored girls..., Shange's stage directions provide a sense of the interrelationships among the performers and of their gestures and dance movements.

The play begins and ends with the lady in brown. The other six performers represent the colors of the rainbow: the ladies in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. The various repercussions of "bein alive & bein a woman & bein colored is a metaphysical dilemma" are explored through the words, gestures, dance, and music of the seven ladies, who improvise as they shift in and out of different roles. In the 1970s, when Ntozake Shange herself performed in for colored girls..., she continually revised and refined the poems and the movements in her search to express a female black identity. Improvisation is central to her celebration of the uniqueness of the black female body and language, and it participates in the play's theme of movement as a means to combat the stasis of the subjugation. In studying this play in its textual, static format one should, therefore, keep in mind the improvisational character of actual performance and realize that stasis is the opposite of what Shange wanted for this play. In fact, in her preface she announces to readers that while they listen, she herself is already "on the other side of the rainbow" with "other work to do." She has moved on, as she expects her readers to do as well.

for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf Summary

dark phrases
The play opens with seven women dressed in the colors of the rainbow plus brown, running onto the stage from various directions and then freezing in place. The spotlight picks out the lady in brown, who comes to life and performs the poem "dark phrases," which speaks of the trials of a young black girl growing into womanhood in America. The other six women chime in—after the lady in brown says "let her be born"—as being from "outside Chicago," "outside Detroit," "outside Houston," and so on. The melancholy mood shifts to a playful rendition of "mama's little baby loves shortnin" and dance ("let your backbone slip") and a game of freeze tag, which is interrupted by the next poem.

graduation nite
A theme of male assault combined with longing for male companionship is introduced, as the lady in yellow narrates, with some pride, how she lost her virginity in the back seat of a car. The other ladies
variously express their agreement with or disgust over her joy in the discovery of sex.

now i love somebody more than
Their discussion slides into this next poem, narrated by the lady in blue, who says she has Puerto Rican blood. Speaking some Spanish she describes her love of music and dancing and of the men who make music. The rest of the ladies softly join in saying "teammasque" ("Have you more than").

no assistance
The lady in red interrupts to tell that in spite of rebuffed love she continues to "debase herself for the love of another." But she ends in strength when she says "this note is attached to a plant/i've been waterin' since the day i met you/you may water it/ yr damn self." The lady in orange responds with a throwback to her desire for love and joy ("i wanna sing make you dance"). The rest of the ladies join in with "we gotta dance to keep from cryin," "we gotta dance to keep from dyin."

i'm a poet who
The dancing culminates in a declaration of pride in expression summed up by the lines, "hold yr head like it was a ruby sapphire/i'm a poet who writes in english/come to share worlds with you."

latent rapists
A sudden change of light causes the ladies to "react as if they had been struck in the face," and they collaborate on a poem describing the shock of date rape for those who expected... » Complete for colored girls who have considered... Summary