Sing a Black Girl's Song: The Unpublished Work of Ntozake Shange

by Ntozake Shange, Imani Perry (Foreword by), Tarana Burke (Editor)

Overview

The Millions “Most Anticipated” Books of 2023

Never-before-seen unpublished works by award-winning American literary icon Ntozake Shange, featuring essays, plays, and poems from the archives of the seminal Black feminist writer who stands alongside giants like Toni Morrison and Alice Walker, curated by National Book Award winner Imani Perry with a foreword by New York Times bestselling author Tarana Burke.
 
            In the late ’60s, Ntozake Shange was a student at Barnard College discovering her budding talent as a writer, publishing in her school’s literary journal, and finding her unique voice. By the time she left us in 2018,  Shange had scorched blazing trails across countless pages and stages, redefining genre and form as we know them, each verse, dance, and song a love letter to Black women and girls, and the community at large.
            Sing a Black Girl’s Song is a new posthumous collection of Shange’s unpublished poems, essays, and plays from throughout the life of the seminal Black feminist writer. In these pages we meet young Shange, learn the moments that inspired for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf…, travel with an eclectic family of musicians, sit on “The Couch” opposite Shange’s therapist, and discover plays written after for colored girls’ international success. Sing a Black Girl’s Song houses, in their original form, the literary rebel’s politically charged verses from the Black Arts Movement era alongside her signature tender rhythm and cadence  that capture the minutia and nuance of Black life. Sing a Black Girl’s Song is the continuation of a literary tradition that has bolstered generations of writers and a long-lasting gift from one of the fiercest and most highly celebrated artists of our time.   
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781668638477
Publisher:	Hachette Book Group
Publication date:	09/12/2023
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 5.70(h) x (d)

About the Author

Ntozake Shange, author of 36 published works, is increasingly recognized as one of America’s greatest writers having, for 50 years, embodied the struggle of women of color for equality and the recognition of their contribution to human culture. Her "choreo-poem", for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow Is enuf, recorded a 2 ½ year run on Broadway and has remained in print since 1974.  That production retains its title as the longest-running play by an African American writer in Broadway history. A revival of for colored girls…, opened in the 2022 Broadway season to unanimous critical acclaim and seven TONY Award nominations. Ntozake’s literary legacy, preserved in the Shange Institute at Barnard College, comprises 13 plays, seven novels, six children’s books and 19 poetry collections, the majority of which are published and in print. She is posthumously inducted into both the NY State Writer’s Association and the Off-Broadway Alliance Halls of Fame. Her poetry collection “Wild Beauties” was received enthusiastically in 2018. A semi-autobiographical work entitled “Dance We Do” was released in 2020 from Beacon Press. 2022 has seen the collaborative establishment of the Ntozake Shange Social Justice Playwright Residency by Barnard College, the NY Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater and the Ntozake Shange Revocable Trust and Shange’s induction into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

Imani Perry (Editor) is the Hughes Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University. She is the author of 7 books. Her most recent book is the New York Times bestseller South to America: A Journey below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation, a finalist for the 2022 National Book Award. She has received literary awards and fellowships from the Lambda Literary Award, the Shilts-Grahn Award, American Studies Association John Hope Franklin Book Award, the Hurston Wright Award, and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. Perry was named a Guggenheim Fellow and a Pew Fellow. She has written for the New York Times, Atlantic, Harpers, O, Oprah Magazine, New York Magazine, and The Paris Review.  She has a Ph.D. in American Studies from Harvard University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an LLM from Georgetown University Law Center and a BA from Yale College in Literature and American Studies. 
Tarana J. Burke (Foreword), for more than 25 years as activist, advocate, and author, has worked at the intersection of sexual violence and racial justice. Fueled by commitments to interrupt sexual violence and other systemic inequalities disproportionately impacting marginalized people, particularly Black women and girls, Tarana has created and led various campaigns focused on increasing access to resources and support for impacted communities, including the ‘me too.’ Movement, which has galvanized millions of survivors and allies around the world, and the me too. International nonprofit organization, founded in 2018. Her New York Times bestselling books You Are Your Best Thing and Unbound have illuminated the power of healing, vulnerability, and storytelling in the movement to end sexual violence. 
 

Lynn Whitfield is an actress and producer. She began her acting career in television and theater before progressing to supporting roles in film. She has won an Emmy Award and has also received a Golden Globe Award nomination for her performance as Josephine Baker in the HBO biographical drama film The Josephine Baker Story.

Savannah Shange is assistant professor of anthropology and principal faculty in critical race and ethnic studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Robin Miles, named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, has twice won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration, an Audie Award for directing, and many Earphones Awards. Her film and television acting credits include The Last Days of Disco, Primary Colors, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order, New York Undercover, National Geographic’s Tales from the Wild, All My Children, and One Life to Live. She regularly gives seminars to members of SAG and AFTRA actors’ unions, and in 2005 she started Narration Arts Workshop in New York City, offering audiobook recording classes and coaching. She holds a BA degree in theater studies from Yale University, an MFA in acting from the Yale School of Drama, and a certificate from the British American Drama Academy in England.

Imani Perry is the author of several books, including South to America, winner of the National Book Award for Nonfiction and a New York Times bestseller. She is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American studies at Princeton University.

Tarana Burke has always been struck by a commitment to justice and equity. As the founder of the 'me too' movement and subsequent nonprofit, Burke works to dismantle the cycle of sexual violence and other systemic issues that disproportionately impact marginalized people. Tarana's passion for community organizing began in the late 1980s, when as a young girl she joined a youth development organization called 21st Century. Since she has launchd initiatives around issues of racial discrimination, housing inequality, and economic justice. Her work has connected a vast network of influential people, including much of Hollywood, the founder of the Women's March Tamika Mallory, leading intellectuals and authors like Ishmael Beah and Gloria Steinem. She was 2017 TIME Person of the Year and the winner of the 2019 Sydney Peace Prize, and has been the recipient of countless other accolades.

Editorial Reviews

Raw, illuminating and revelatory, Ntozake’s Shange’s bold and lyrical writing gave urgent voice to a new generation of young Black writers like myself who were emboldened by the honesty and beauty of her poetry, plays, and prose to tell our own stories.”

Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lynn Nottage

With Sing A Black Girl’s Song, Imani Perry offers intimacy with Ntozake Shange as a peerless, prolific writer in process. Here is a brilliant multi-genre gathering from Shange’s archive that maps her political and creative maturation on her quest for self-actualization as a Black woman in America participating in transnational Black liberation movements. Brimming with lyrical incandescence, sensuality and self-regard, Shange urges us to “keep an eye” on ourselves, documenting not only what is happening to us, but within us and through us individually and collectively.

playwright and Inaugural Resident of the Ntozake S Erika Dickerson-Despenza

"Previously unseen writing from an essential Black author. . . Those acquainted with the author will see familiar themes emerge as she engages with colonialism, code switching, white supremacy, liberation politics, sexism, sexual violence, and collective trauma. She writes of desire and despair and revolution and Black joy using language and imagery that she was taught to hide from white people. . . Shange speaks candidly of her struggles with mental health and her years in psychoanalysis, and she insists that therapy made her a better writer. . . The literary value of these works extends far beyond the insight they offer into Shange’s life and artistic career."—Kirkus (Starred Review)

“As a playwright, poet, and sometimes essayist, Shange worked at the intersection of Black liberation and radical feminism… [T]he work of artists like Shange must be preserved and celebrated. This posthumous collection of essays, poems, and plays—many being published for the first time—does just that.”—Lit Hub

"Even posthumously, Shange's unique voice is more relevant than ever. Her lyrical way of telling stories imbues these revived essays, plays, and poems with a vitality that consistently centers Black women and girls and goes toe-to-toe with white supremacy, sexism, and colonialism. Perfect for longtime fans and newcomers to her radically experimental body of work, Sing a Black Girl's Song gives readers a deeper understanding of how this literary icon created her signature style."—BUST

“From a poem published in her high school newspaper to her groundbreaking choreopoems to moving critical essays—all previously unpublished—this volume showcases the genius of Shange: her breadth, depth, wisdom and love.”—Ms. Magazine

“What a fabulous treasure trove of insights into Ntozake Shange's soul… this book provides an intoxicating slice of life to make anyone a lifelong fan… Beautiful. Just like her.”—Good Morning America

“Raw, illuminating and revelatory, Ntozake’s Shange’s bold and lyrical writing gave urgent voice to a new generation of young Black writers like myself who were emboldened by the honesty and beauty of her poetry, plays, and prose to tell our own stories.”—Lynn Nottage, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright

"With Sing A Black Girl’s Song, Imani Perry offers intimacy with Ntozake Shange as a peerless, prolific writer in process. Here is a brilliant multi-genre gathering from Shange’s archive that maps her political and creative maturation on her quest for self-actualization as a Black woman in America participating in transnational Black liberation movements. Brimming with lyrical incandescence, sensuality and self-regard, Shange urges us to “keep an eye” on ourselves, documenting not only what is happening to us, but within us and through us individually and collectively."—Erika Dickerson-Despenza, playwright and Inaugural Resident of the Ntozake Shange Social Justice Playwriting Residency

From the Publisher

Ntozake Shange's posthumous unpublished collection of plays, poems, and essays is brought to life by a stellar ensemble of narrators. It begins with Tarana Burke's personal foreword on meeting Shange and leads into Imani Perry's soft-spoken narration. Her even tone encourages reflection by anyone who connects with Shange's work, which has impacted Black women for decades. Each section is introduced. The women's voices come in and out like one long, fluid performance poem. Many listeners will recognize the voices of actors Alfre Woodard, Lynn Whitfield, and Regina Taylor. Given the array of literary genres, all the voices, including that of the poet's daughter, Savannah Shange, are varied and distinct. That strength is most noticeable in the two plays included in this magnanimous work of art. T.E.C. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2023 - AudioFile

★ 2023-07-13
Previously unseen writing from an essential Black author.

Shange is perhaps best known for her Obie Award–winning play, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf. But in addition to being a playwright, she was also a poet, a novelist, and a diarist, and when she died in 2018, she left behind a wealth of unpublished work. Harvard professor Imani Perry searched through these archives and chose the essays, poems, short stories, and plays presented in this collection. Tarana Burke, founder of the #MeToo movement and bestselling author, offers a foreword in which she explains how “Shange’s words gave me language for my own experiences with trauma and love.” Born Paulette Williams in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1948, the writer would ultimately change her name and become a prominent figure in the Black Arts Movement. In some of these pieces, Shange offers glimpses of her family—well-educated, financially well off, and keenly aware of racial difference. She describes a voracious love of reading that encompassed everything from Nancy Drew to Giovanni’s Room as well as the process of discovering the voice that begins to emerge in her early poems. Those acquainted with the author will see familiar themes emerge as she engages with colonialism, code switching, white supremacy, liberation politics, sexism, sexual violence, and collective trauma. She writes of desire and despair and revolution and Black joy using language and imagery that she was taught to hide from white people. In a series of short vignettes Perry gathers into a chapter called “Dark Rooms,” Shange speaks candidly of her struggles with mental health and her years in psychoanalysis, and she insists that therapy made her a better writer. Several plays, only one of which has been performed, are presented here. Shange continued writing and experimenting right up until her death, and the last section of this book contains poems and prose she produced between 1996 and 2018.

The literary value of these works extends far beyond the insight they offer into Shange’s life and artistic career.

Kirkus Reviews