Object Details
- Exhibition Label
- Born Trenton, New Jersey
- As a groundbreaking poet, playwright, and essayist, Ntozake Shange examined the painful experiences of contemporary Black women in the United States. She had been among the first Black children integrated into St. Louis’s all-white public schools and came of age during the 1960s civil rights movement. In the early 1970s, she renounced her birth name, Paulette Williams, in favor of an African one meaning “she who comes with her own things / she who walks like a lion.”
- In nearly fifty published works, Shange sought to empower women of color by telling their stories, honoring their struggles, and celebrating their strength. She is perhaps best known for the Obie-award winning “choreopoem” For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow is Enuf (1975)—an electrifying blend of poetry, music, dance, and drama that gave voice to “the fury of black women at their double subjugation in white male America.”
- Nacida en Trenton, Nueva Jersey
- Poeta, dramaturga y ensayista innovadora, Ntozake Shange exploró las dolorosas vivencias de las mujeres negras contemporáneas en EE.UU. Estuvo entre los primeros niños negros que se integraron a escuelas públicas de blancos en St. Louis y se hizo adulta en la década de 1960, auge del movimiento pro derechos civiles. A principios de los setenta se cambió el nombre de Paulette Williams a uno africano que significaba “la que viene con sus propias cosas / la que anda como un león”.
- En casi 50 obras publicadas, Shange buscó empoderar a las mujeres de color contando sus historias, honrando sus luchas, celebrando su fuerza. Quizás se la conoce más por el “coreopoema” ganador del premio Obie Para nenas negras que han considerado el suicidio / Cuando el arcoíris es suficiente (1975), una mezcla de poesía, música, danza y drama que dio voz a “la furia de las mujeres negras ante su doble subyugación en una América de hombres blancos”.
- Data Source
- National Portrait Gallery
- Artist
- Paul Davis, born 10 Feb 1938
- Sitter
- Ntozake Shange, 18 Oct 1948 - 27 Oct 2018
- Date
- c. 1975
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Chisholm Larsson Gallery, New York City
- Medium
- Color lithograph on paper
- Dimensions
- Image/Sheet: 116.7 × 58.5 cm (45 15/16 × 23 1/16")
- Type
