For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf

Ntozake Shange

Nov 2010 · Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

The “extraordinary and wonderful” award-winning play in a new edition featuring an additional poem, production photos, and an introduction by Jesmyn Ward (The New York Times).

From its inception in California in 1974 to its Broadway revival in 2022, the Obie Award–winning for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf has excited, inspired, and transformed audiences all over the country. Passionate and fearless, Shange’s words reveal what it meant to be a woman of color in the 20th century—and they continue to ring true in the 21st.

First published in 1975, it was praised by The New Yorker for “encompassing . . . every feeling and experience a woman has ever had”. This new edition celebrates the play’s enduring legacy with introductions by Jesmyn Ward and Broadway director Camille A. Brown. It also features a poem not previously included in the text, and a selection of photos capturing the play’s evolution and reinvention.

Ratings and reviews

When this play hit the stage in NYC, it started a whirlwind -- black men tended to hate it, black women tended to love it. Feminists applauded, while most white folks were confused by it. I saw the play on Broadway twice -- have seen it live four times, read the book and given away many a copy, only to repurchase it. Ntozake is one of my heroes, a woman who found song in words, and power. I still have most of these poems memorized, although I haven't read any of them in years. If you only know this work through the movie version, you don't know what you are missing. I've just read some of the reviews and see that it remains true. For some it is our story. For others, a shaming. Some will appreciate the style, others be put off by it. I was reshaped by the works of this lioness and will forever be grateful for her voice.

I was hoping to read at least a few pages to help me decide but the sample is just reviews. REALLY!!! You will sell more books if you give at least a couple of pages to get us into it. Or maybe it sucks so bad that will ruin any chance. Can't say.

This book helped me through so many painful experiences that I, alongside (probably the majority of) other women of color (and white women as well). It is a masterpiece.

About the author

Ntozake Shange (1948–2018) was a renowned playwright, poet, theater director, and novelist. Her body of work includes Obie Award–winning for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, Some Sing Some Cry with Ifa Bayeza, and the posthumous Dance We Do: A Poet Explores Black Dance and I Am an Old Woman. Among her numerous accolades are the Langston Hughes Medal for Literature, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, the Pushcart Prize, the Poetry Society of America’s 2018 Shelley Memorial Award and three AUDELCO awards. Ms. Shange’s work has been nominated for a Grammy, a Tony, and an Emmy.