Dec 31, 2009

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

Born Paulette Williams on October 18, 1948, Shange, at the age of twenty-three, adopted the Zulu name Ntozake (pronounced "en-toe-zak-ee" and meaning "she who comes with her own things'') Shange (pronounced "shon-gay" and meaning "who walks like a lion") as a name more appropriate to her poetic talents. She felt that her Anglo-Saxon last name was associated with slavery and her given name was a feminized version of the male name Paul. Shange once stated in an interview that she changed her name to disassociate herself from the history of a culture that championed slavery.

Shange...