A Black Woman's Identity Discovered in for Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide when the Rainbow is Enuf

Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf is a powerful choreopoem about black women learning to express themselves and find their identity. In this choreopoem, black women are portrayed by seven ladies identified by seven different colors. The ladies begin the choreopoem isolated from each other; they have no connection and little voice. The choreopoem "commends black women who refuse to despair in the face of loneliness, rejection, pain, and rape" (Bridges). These women are strong, black women. Through story-telling, chanting and dancing the ladies form a bond and find their identity as black women.

As the choreopoem begins, the ladies are distressed. The ladies have no voice, no identity. The lady in brown "comes to life" and tries to reach out to the other ladies, but gets no response (3). She begs for someone to speak about black girls' life and experiences. She wants to know what other black women are like. She wants to be heard and able to hear herself. Her voice and her identity have been buried for so long. Her voice has been silenced; her pain has been overlooked. The lady in brown expresses what life is like being a black woman. A black women has to care for others, has to struggle through hard times. But somehow she is still beautiful. She has hidden her identity for many years, but the lady in brown pleads for someone to sing it to the world.

somebody/ anybody

sing a black girl's song

bring her out

to know herself

to know you

but sing her rhythms

carin/ struggle/ hard times

sing her song of life

she's been dead so long

closed in silence so long

she doesn't know the sound of her own voice

her infinite beauty

…

sing the song of her possibilities

…

let her be born

let her be born (Shange 4).

According to Lisa Gail Collins, the lady in brown begs for black women to be noticed. This plea "rests on the belief closely held by both black power advocates and women's

liberation activists that increased self-awareness accompanied by ideological awakening would benefit oppressed and suppressed individuals by healing psychic wounds, curbing feelings of alienation and despair, and turning healing individuals outward so that they could more folly unite with their allies."

Collins goes on to say that because of the plea from the lady in brown, the other women in For Colored Girls begin to share their experiences of life as a black woman. However, the lady in yellow tells the other ladies that "bein alive & bein a woman & bein colored is a metaphysical dilemma / i haven't conquered yet" (Shange 45).

In her choreopoem, Shange shares experiences that have shaped her identity. As a black woman, she has experienced physical and emotional abuse from black men. The abuse Shange and other black women have experienced have helped to shape their identity. Shange shares this abuse through all of the ladies talking about a women being raped by someone she knew. The women express how hard life as a black woman can be. The ladies explain that they have heard all the excuses why women don't press charges in rape cases. The lady in blue says "a friend is hard to press charges against" (Shange 17). The other ladies chime in saying it must have been "a misunderstanding", "you know/ these things happen", "are you sure/ you didn't suggest" and "had you been drinking" (Shange 17). The ladies express the hopelessness of their situation: "a rapist is always to be a stranger/ to be legitimate" (Shange 17). The ladies in red and blue sum it up when they say men they know will make them dinner and will "invite a coupla friends over to have you … & [women] are left wit the scars"; life is very difficult "bein betrayed by men who know us" (Shange 19). The women agree that it is generally accepted that "women relinquish all personal rights/ in the presence of a man" and could be rapped by someone she knows, even in her house and the man would not be punished (Shange 20). This ever present fear shapes the women's identities, but also through their story-telling the women are beginning to form a bond with each other.

The identity of the author becomes apparent in the lady in green. The lady in green says "ntozake 'her own things' that's my name" (Shange 50). The lady in green clearly shows us who Ntozake is. Her identity is defined by her "stuff" (Shange 50). Her "perfect ass", her "chewed up finger nails", her "rhythm", her "voice" define her. When someone tries to steal her stuff, they try to steal who she is, her identity. The lady in green goes on to say that without her stuff, she can not follow her destiny. She says, "i gotta have my stuff to do it … why don't ya find yr own things" (Shange 51). The lady in green is finding out who she is. She is what her "stuff" dictates.

Shange also reveals her identity by her choice of words and spelling, which allows her to develop "an artistic persona intimately connected to her racial and gender identity through her use of the vernacular language of the African-American community" (Fury). Shange's style helps her identify herself as a black woman. This also serves to separate herself from black men and whites. Shange expresses her identity through her writing. Through the lady in yellow, Shange speaks of her painful experiences in life as a black woman: "i got drunk & cdnt figure out whose hand waz on my thigh/ but it didn't matter" (Shange 8). Later the lady in yellow goes on to explain the pressure on young, black women to have sex: "… i waz the only virgin/ so i hadda make like my hip waz inta some business/ that way everybody thot whoever was getting it/ was a older man cdnt run the streets wit younsters" (Shange 9). Shange's word choice clearly defines her as a black woman.

Another way Shange expresses her identity in For colored girls is through the use of ritual chanting and various other forms of ritualized enactments (Fury). In "no more love poems #4", Shange portrays the women bonding through ritual dancing and chanting. The ladies all chant the words "delicate", "and beautiful", "oh sanctified", "magic", "and saturday nite", "and complicated" (Shange 48-9). While they are chanting, the ladies are also dancing. The stage notes say "the dance reached a climax and all of the ladies fall out tiered, but full of life and togetherness" (49). The ladies have shared their experiences (or identities) and, through dancing and chanting, have come been drawn closer together: "Communal ritual, Shange implies, is essential to the African-American woman's sense of identity that is [supported] by her membership in a larger, supportive community" (Fury). The ladies have formed a bond by sharing their experiences. They have found their identities as black women.

Ntozake Shange finds her identity in For Colored Girls through dancing, chanting and story-telling. Shange portrays black women as having been isolated but able to come together through shared experiences. These experiences help shape the identity of the women and Shange. Shange's word choice and vernacular spelling help to create the imagery of her identity. For Colored Girls depicts the trials of black women and their ability to overcome them. By joining together and sharing their experiences, these women (and Shange) were able to find their identity.