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Ntozake Shange, a spoken language artist who became a playwright with her canonical play "For the Colored Girls Who Thought of Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf", passed away Saturday in Bowie, Maryland. . She was 70 years old.
Her sister, Ifa Bayeza, confirmed her death, saying she was in poor health for two strokes more than ten years ago.
At only 27 when "For Colored Girls" opened at the Booth Theater in 1976, Mrs. Shange was a rarity on Broadway for two reasons: she was black and she was a woman. But his unconventional piece was a hit and was nominated for a Tony Award. A series of incisive feminist monologues for seven black female characters named for the rainbow colors – Mrs. Shange herself played the Lady at the Orange – inspired generations of youngsters. dramatic authors coming behind her.
Among them was Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks, who, in an interview on Sunday, was very fond of meeting Ms. Shange in September at the Park Avenue Armory during a brunch for the playwrights. .
"I saw Ntozake enter the room," Ms. Parks said, "and I got up." Young writers said, "What's the problem? Why are you standing? "And I said:" The queen has just entered the room. ""
In her work, Ms. Shange was a champion of black women and girls and, in her pioneering spirit, she broadened the meaning of what it was possible to do for other black women artists.
When Ms. Shange (her full name is pronounced en-toh-ZAH-kee SHAHN-gay) first came to the American theater, her response was not uniformly respectful. "For Colored Girls" won critical acclaim and an Obie Award for a production from the Public Theater before moving to Broadway. But the direct discussion of the trauma and abuse of black women has been viewed by some as an affront to black men.
"The seven ladies dressed in their simple, colorful dresses were a real ruckus," Ms. Shange wrote decades later. "I was really stunned to be at that moment and consider it to be the biggest threat to black men since the cotton pickin ', and not all the women were in my corner either. "
Born October 18, 1948 in Trenton, Paulette Williams was the daughter of Dr. Paul T. Williams, Surgeon, and Eloise Owens Williams, Professor of Social Work. She adopted a Zulu name as a young woman.
She was a graduate of Trenton High School, Barnard College, and the University of Southern California, where she earned a master's degree in American Studies.
Her family said she was deeply touched by the civil rights movement and later participated in the anti-war movement and efforts to promote the rights of women, Puerto Ricans and artists. black.
Novelist and poet who was unable to hold a pen for several years after suffering a stroke, Ms. Shange had recently resumed poetry readings and was working on a new book on dance. She was fighting very hard though and the activity ran out, Ms. Bayeza said during a phone interview.
"The intensity with which she has embraced life has had detrimental consequences on her body," Ms. Bayeza said. "The vulnerability that she was so eager to share with the world was always a vulnerability."
Ms. Shange, who won an obituary in Bertolt Brecht's adaptation of "Mother Bravery and Her Children," was the author of 15 plays, 19 books of poems, six novels, five children's books, and three collections of essays. One of his novels, "Some Sing, Some Cry," was written with Ms. Bayeza and tells the story of African-American music and dance through seven generations of a family. fictitious.
This is a remarkable achievement as her family has described Ms. Shange's struggles with bipolar disorder and substance abuse.
But "For Colored Girls" remained his best known work. In 1982, it was an American playhouse production on PBS, and in 2010, it became a star movie adaptation directed by Tyler Perry.
Janet Jackson, Kerry Washington, Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose and Whoopi Goldberg are part of the cast. Madea, Mr. Perry's alter ego on screen, was nowhere to be seen. Ms. Shange said that she explicitly told Mr. Perry that Madea could not be in Colored Girls. The Times reported.
Ms. Shange described the choreopoem piece as poetry, dance and music.
Lynn Nottage, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, said the piece "no doubt addressed a generation of young women who did not feel invited to a theatrical space, who suddenly saw themselves portrayed. very honest way they could occupy this space for the first time. "
It's also a rite of passage for black actresses, said playwright Aleshea Harris ("Is God Is"), winner of the Obie Award. Prior to dramaturgy, she played Lady in Yellow in a Florida production. (Ms. Parks is also a veteran of the series, having played the role of Lady in Blue in a Texas production directed by Laurie Carlos, who played this role on Broadway.)
However, Harris's first encounter with the text goes back several years and she remembers the sense of gratitude she had when reading as a student.
"It was like electricity," Harris recalls, "and I think I said aloud," It's like me. She had the impression of having taken it from my mouth.
In addition to her sister, Ms. Shange's survivors include a daughter, Savannah Shange; another sister, Bisa Williams; his brother, Paul T. Williams Jr .; and a granddaughter. She was married to saxophonist David Murray and painter McArthur Binion, father of Savannah. Both marriages ended in a divorce.
For Ms. Shange, the notoriety of "For Colored Girls" was grueling in the early years and it took a long time to adapt, Bayeza said. But celebrity provided the platform that Ms. Shange had been looking for since she had decided to be a poet.
"It suited him," Bayeza said. "It suited his life size. For that she could talk to a lot, because that was her goal. "
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