NTOZAKE SHANGE: Portrait of a Literary Feminist

by Edward K. Brown II

Throughout the ages, women have written about the imposition of a male-dominated society, about how this domination constricts their character, and about how women themselves have contributed to the development of a progressive society. Ntozake Shange writes from these perspectives. Her poetry, plays, and novels initiate an awareness of contemporary femininity in society.

Shange has an M.A. from the University of Southern California in American Studies. She teaches Contemporary Black and Latin Literature at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. She has won two Obie Awards, one for for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf another for the adaptation of Brecht's Mother Courage. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Chubb Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

She has four collections of published poetry by St. Martin's Press: The Love Space Demands: a continuous saga, 1991 Ridin' the Moon in Texas, 1987; A Daughter's Geography, 1983; and nappy edges, 1978. Her fiction Betsey Brown (1985) and Sassafras, Cypress & Indigo (1982) was published by St. Martin's, as was one of her two plays Three Pieces: Spell #7, A Photograph: Lovers in Motion, Boogie Woogie Landscapes (1981). Shange's play for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf was published by Bantam in 1977.

The Love Space Demands: a continuous saga was adapted for the stage and premiered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, at the Crossroads Theater in March of 1992 before moving to the Talawa Theater in London and to the Painted Bride Arts Center in Philadelphia.