Plays 1: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf/ Spell #7 / The Love Space Demands

by Ntozake Shange

Ntozake Shange's best plays reissued in the new Contemporary Dramatists series. This collection spans twenty years and brings together her works...

for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf "Shange's poetry is mordantly witty, unpredictable and disciplined. It has to do with love and death and the deepest feelings of young women - in particular, black young women" (New Yorker)

spell# 7 "Shange's sinewy, erotic, insistent poetry snakes through this play - a powerful an dpassionate evocation of black culture suppressed, or just plain ignored" (Time Out)

The Love Space Demands "Focusing on the experiences of black women but drawing on an awesome range of cross-cultural references, her words ooze with earthy sensuality a remarkable, lyrical experience of live poetry" (Independent).

"Shange's language is pure gold" (City Limits)

Genres: Plays, Poetry

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

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

[Ceyrone]

The first collection of work by playwright, poet, novelist and performer, Ntozake Shange. Her work reflects the raw reality of Black women's lives. This collection spans 20 years and and brings together her key theatrical choreopoem, for colored girls, first performed to critical acclaim on Broadway in the early seventies; spell #7, an exuberant portrayal of Black life in America; and her most recent piece, The Love Space Demands. I love this collection, I went through a range of emotion, it gave me chills, I was left heartbroken and by the end of it, I was put back together. One can imagine, with little effort, a simple space in which the passion of life is performed before an audience. It allows one to visualize a mix of: jazz; poetry; fluid movement; as scenarios, emotion & reflection are brought to life by her poetic verse. If you are new to Shange this provides the essential compendium at a reasonable price; skip straight to "The love space demands," to experience her at her very best. Highly recommend.