Ntozake Shange

   Over Winter Break I was spending some time at my sister's house and I saw that the movie For Colored Girls was coming on Stars. I was stoked because I had not seen this movie yet and wanted to watch it with my sister. We watched it late that night and boy was it moving! Emotional deep melody of spoken word and great acting. I will be honest though some of the dialogue going over eachother and then the heightened music lost me ssome of the time.
   Anyway, in the credits I learned that this was a book and I immediately got on my laptop. We wanted to know more about this book that was actually called a Choreopoem. and the actual title is For Colored Girls Who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf. It was originally a play of poems, a beautiful colaboration between Ntozake and her friends. I would kill to see this play in action. I don't think they are still performed live but I'd travel aacross the world if I had the money and if they would perform it! I ordered the book on Amazon that same night, lol, and it came just days before I had to return to Savannah. I read a page or two and got all excited but saved the book for my travels to Savannah. The choreopoem is very short like a novella and I got a nice hardcover copy. But I took my time reading it, saving it for moments I had with myself where I could dive into the language of these beautiful voices I heard as I read. I finished the book weeks ago but didn't get a chance to review it till now.
    Tyler Perry....great job because you made a full length movie out of a very small book and I value the poems they perserved in the movie itself, I hope Ntozake had a lot of say in how the stories in the movie developed because some of which don't exist in the book or are hard to interpret. Also some of the characters actually aacted out the monologues and scenes of what would be different people in the play. I like stories that describe a variety of characters and as the movie progress you see how they overlap. The book is  a play so essentially everyone is already overlapping. The horrible scene of the children beeing dropped from the window actually is at the end of the book and its more climax in the movie.

Of course I have my favorites from Ntozake Shange that I must share of course!
the lady in yellow - graduation night scene is funny
the lady in red - the note she left on the plant she'd been watering from the day she met that man
the lady in green - someone walked off with alla my stuff!
the lady in blue - 'Sorry' scene (just perfect!)

I want to share the last one because it truly is my favorite and something I can relate to as well as many others I'm sure. These poems are iconic to me and will live forever.

LADY IN BLUE:

One thing I don’t need

is any more apologies

i got sorry greetin me at my front door

you can keep yrs

i don’t know what to do wit em

they don’t make me happy

or get a morin paper

didn’t nobody stop usin my tears to wash cars

cuz a sorry

i am simply tired

of collectin

i didn’t know

i was so important to you

i’m gonna haveta throw some away

i cant get to the clothes in my closet

for alla the sorries

i’m gonna tack a sign to my door

 leave a message by the phome

'if you called

to say yr sorry

call somebody

else

i don’t use en anymor’

i let sorry/didn’t meanta/& how cd i

know abt that

take a walk down a dark &

musty street in Brooklyn

i’m gonna do exactly what I want to

& I wont be sorry for none of it

letta sorry soothe yr soul/I’m gonna soothe mine

i loved you on purpose

i was open on purpose

i still crave vulnerability & close talk

& i’m not even sorry bout you bein sorry

you can carry all the guilt & grime ya wanna

just don’t give it to me

i cant use another sorry

next time you should admit

you’re mean/low-down/trifling/

& no count straight out

steada bein sorry alla the time

enjoy bein yrself

NOW .... I am reading one of Ntozake Shange's narratives and you can tell the author is poet by the ways the words move on the page and in your mouth. It reminds me of myself when I try to write a story it begins to rhyme or get conceptual lol. But anyway I wasn't sure what I wanted to read from her next and I chose Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo which is a growing up story of three sisters and their mother. I'm almost half way through the book and I'm hoping to finish it before Spring Break on the 14th of March. I'm enjoying her narrative its rich in detail and very spiritual, it makes me wonder if she has a vivid imagination or if she is a believer of the spiritual world and its healings. With Indigo's "spells" and mama's recipes the book is actually a strong reminder of Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquival. I'm excited to finish the book and move onto her other narratives and later into more of her poetry.

I rented the book from the library here in Savannah. YES I got a library card and it was very exciting to do so :) I first got it because I wanted to see movies with Laura my English roomate because all of my favorite movies she had not seen yet! And we both wanted to see Troy and The Oddyssey for our Art History classes. Anyway, when I got the card I checked out the book by Ntozake and I'm still working my way into it. To me pleasure reading is very VERY important to me because it reminds me why I and everyone else in the world should love to read. Being an IB student I've been forced to read books since the 6th grade. Some were good most sucked a lot! But in middle school I read an awesome awesome book! Jason and Kyra by Dana Davidson. My mentor and teacher friend Stephanie Tomaselli bought me that book and it was thick and I read it daily it was so good! From there I began a habit of always having a pleasure reading book. Even though I couldn't read it die to other assignments, my pleasure book waited around for me until I had the time and pleasure of reading it. Pleasure books remind me that I love to read, remind me I love a good book, and remind me there is more to literature than the textbooks I get stuck in over the years. Everyone should have a book on the side that they can pick up when the power is out, internet is down, for when you're waiting and got nothing else to do the book is there for you waiting to pull you into another world.