A Daughter's Geography

by Ntozake Shange

The noted poet, playwright, and novelist offers a collection of intensely personal poems intended to map out the geography of life and beauty that she would declare for her daughter

Genres: Poetry, Womens, Race, Gender, African American, Fiction

74 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Ntozake Shange (pronounced En-toe-ZAHK-kay SHONG-gay) was an African-American playwright, performance artist, and writer who is best known for her Obie Award winning play for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf.

Among her honors and awards are fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, and a Pushcart Prize.

Reviews

[Sarah Cavar · Rating 5 out of 5]

A litany against colonialism and toward love — love for Shange’s daughter, who is a being made of flesh and text and authorial hope; love for one’s people amid recognition of a brutal, ongoing history; and love for the nations of the world suffering under the thumb of colonizers, whose languages may differ but whose songs of freedom are universal. This is a stunning book of love, struggle, and triumph from the global to the intimate interpersonal.

[Lesley-Ann Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ntozake Shange is the poet for the African diaspora - her poetry weaves all of the many places of our kin together and her language, still is refreshingly inventive. Shange is a poet to be studied by lovers of poetry and Black life.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why did I let this sit on my shelf for so long before finally getting to it? I will always be in the tank for Ntozake Shange. The beginning trio of poems, "It Hasn't Always Been This Way," riffing on the jazz and the Okra and Greens poems from the end are particularly beautiful. Some of the stuff in the middle is a little didactic (god forgive me, criticizing Ms. Shange, ugh) but I'm not really mad about it.

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shange opposes oppression, salutes Pan-American Blackness, adds poems on sex/love. Fallen Fighters brings back memories of reggae clubs.

[Esther Park · Rating 5 out of 5]

in the middle of the nite
is a blue thing

[Seth Shimelfarb-Wells · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shange creates her own prose form/feeling/possibility. An anti imperialist collection of beautiful beautiful language. It’s always down to the word/rhythm with her. New mother, post David Murray, improvised feeler, dance performing, greens loving, set designing amerikan genius. Favs in no order were: improvisation, some men, you are such a fool, a historical perspective of sound, synechdoche. Highly rec if you can find.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. Her tendency to use what we might now call textspeak -- shortened words, such as yr, wd, cd, etc. -- seems to serve no point. Her poems subjects range from tender to angry. This is nothing if not a passionate collection.

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ntozake Shange is so associated with her canonical choreopoem "for colored girls...," you might foolishly forget that she wrote many other works. Don't do that! This multi-hyphenate literary artist has many spells to cast, and this particular poetry collection -- with its own unique theatrical history -- is a self-sustaining wonder. Shange, that master versifier, blesses us with plenty of stunners here: "Mood Indigo," "You Are Sucha Fool," and "About Atlanta," for starters. There's actually not a bad poem in the bunch and how often can you say that?!