Dec 26, 2009

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...