Works by
Ntozake Shange
(Playwright, Writer)

Anthologies (Editor)

• The Beacon Best of 1999: Creative Writing by Women and Men of All Colors (1999)
  Continuing a commitment to presenting experiences drawn from lives lived outside the lines, Beacon Press presents The Beacon Best of 1999, a dazzling collection that includes the work of Dorothy Allison, Junot Diaz, Rita Dove, Louise Erdrich, Martin Espada, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Ha Jin, Jamaica Kincaid, Barbara Kingsolver, Yusef Komunyakaa, Hanif Kureishi, Marjorie Sandor, and John Edgar Wideman, as well as rising stars like Toure and Reetika Vazirani. Acclaimed playwright, poet, and novelist Ntozake Shange has chosen a treasury of poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction published over the past year. In The Beacon Best of 1999, women and men writing with fine grace ask us to look at the whole picture, from the street to the second story-to see, perhaps for the first time, the life of boxer Jack Johnson, or the fierceness of a love transformed into rage for a child killed by gang violence, or the complexities of a love affair in New Delhi, as lenses through which to consider questions of courage, brotherhood, and beauty. The alternative literary annual, The Beacon Best of 1999,/i> will introduce you to a world where tradition and convention are overturned and the unexpected is a welcome guest.

Children

• Whitewash (1997) with Michael Sporn, Illustrator
  A young African-American girl is traumatized when a gang attacks her and her brother on their way home from school and spray-paints her face white. Based on a true story.  Ages 9-12.

• Float Like a Butterfly (2002)
  Muhammad Ali, considered by many to be the finest athlete of the twentieth century, is also one of the most famous Americans of his time. Here is a compelling testimony to his courage, resilience in the face ofcontroversy, and boxing prowess by Obie Award-winning author Ntozake Shange. In her own words, Shange shows us Ali and his life, from his childhood in the segregated South to his meteoric rise in boxing to become the Heavyweight Champion of the World. Edel Rodriguez's stunning artwork combines pastels, monoprint woodblock ink linework and spray paint on colored papers to capture Ali's power, spontaneity, and energy. A time line and list of additional resources and Web sites help make this a standout picture book biography of the man known around the world as 'The Greatest.'  Ages 4-18

• Daddy Says (2003)
  Annie Sharon and Lucie-Marie, daughters of two African-American rodeo stars, have been raised by their loving but remote father, Tie-Down, since their mother, Twanda, was killed by an out-of-control horse. The girls feel their mother's absence terribly, especially now that they are beginning to get older, but Tie-Down misses her too much to talk about her. Now Tie-Down has started dating Cassie, and the girls resent her intrusion into their lives. But after a close call at the rodeo, it is Cassie who finally brings this family together.  Ages 9-12

• Ellington Was Not a Street (2004) with Kadir Nelson, Illustrator -- Winner Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award
  n a reflective tribute to the African-American community of old, noted poet Ntozake Shange recalls her childhood home and the close-knit group of innovators that often gathered there. These men of vision, brought to life in the majestic paintings of artist Kadir Nelson, lived at a time when the color of their skin dictated where they could live, what schools they could attend, and even where they could sit on a bus or in a movie theater. Yet in the face of this tremendous adversity, these dedicated souls and others like them not only demonstrated the importance of Black culture in America, but also helped issue in a movement that "changed the world." Their lives and their works inspire us to this day, and serve as a guide to how we approach the challenges of tomorrow. Ages 4-8

Fiction

• About Atlanta (1981)

• Some Men (1981)

• Sassafrass, Cypress and Indigo (1982)
  Sassafrass, Cypress and Indigo is the story of three "colored girls," three sisters and their mama from Charleston, South Carolina: Sassafrass, the oldest, a poet and a weaver like her mother, gone north to college, living with other artists in Los Angeles and trying to weave a life out of her work, her man, her memories and dreams; Cypress, the dancer,who leaves home to find new ways of moving and easing the contractions of her soul; Indigo, the youngest, still a child of Charleston-"too much of the south in her"-who lives in poetry, can talk to her dolls, and has a great gift of seeing the obvious magic of the world.

• Betsey Brown: A Novel (1985)
  Unique and vividly told novel about a girl named Betsey Brown, an African American seventh-grader growing up in St. Louis, Missouri. While rendering a complete portrait of this girl, author Ntozake Shange also profiles her friends, her family, her home, her school, and her world. 

• Liliane (1994)
  Through the polyphonic voices of Liliane Lincoln's childhood friends, lovers, and conversations with her psychoanalyst, Ntozake Shange weaves the life of a remarkable young woman. Liliane Lincoln is an artist who exposes what she knows of herself to the world through her bold and colorful artwork. Gradually, however, Liliane realizes that in order to survive, she must come to terms with what she has kept hidden even from herself. Liliane is extraordinary vision of a woman learning to be who she really is.

• How I Come by This Cryin' Song (2007 release) with Ifa Bayeza;

Non-fiction

• See No Evil: Prefaces, Essays and Accounts, 1976-1983 (1984)

• Studies in American Drama, 1945-Present: A Celebration of Women Dramatists (1990) with Emily Mann

• If I Can Cook/You Know God Can (1998)
  Acclaimed artist Ntozake Shange offers this delightfully eclectic tribute to black cuisine as a food of life that reflects the spirit and history of a people. With recipes such as "Cousin Eddie's Shark with Breadfruit" and "Collard Greens to Bring You Money," Shange instructs us in the nuances of a cuisine born on the slave ships of the Middle Passage, spiced by the jazz of Duke Ellington, and shared by all members of the African Diaspora. Rich with personal memories and historical insight, If I Can Cook/You Know God Can is a vivid story of the migration of a people, and the cuisine that marks their living legacy and celebration of taste.

Plays

• For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf (1974) -- Nominated Emmy Award,  Nominated Grammy Award, Nominated Tony Award
  From its inception in California in 1974 to its highly acclaimed critical success at Joseph Papp's Public Theater and on Broadway, 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 is to be of color and female in the twentieth century. First published in 1975 when it was praised by The New Yorker for "encompassing...every feeling and experience a woman has ever had," for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf will be read and performed for generations to come. Here is the complete text, with stage directions, of a groundbreaking dramatic prose poem written in vivid and powerful language that resonates with unusual beauty in its fierce message to the world.

• Spell #7 (1979)

• Three Pieces (1981)

• From Okra to Greens: A Different Kinda Love Story: A Play With Music & Dance (1983)

• Plays (1992)
  For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf and Spell #7

• Melissa & Smith (1976)

• nappy edges (1978)
  Spirited celebration of the African-American soul breathes new life in the rhythmic poetry of beats and movements for which she is renowned.

• A Daughter's Geography (1983)

• Ridin' the Moon in Texas: Word Paintings (1987)

• The Love Space Demands (A Continuing Saga) (1987)

• I Live In Music (1994) with Romare Bearden, Illustrator
  Shange's lyrical poem is a tribute to the language of music and the magical, often mystical, rhythms that connect people. Music defines who we are as individuals, the places where we live, and how we exist within our communities. Music is life.
  
  Written in a syncopated style that has its own melody, the poem is perfectly married to twenty-one extraordinary and diverse works from Romare Bearden who once said, "I paint in the tradition of the blues."
  
  Here is a unique and visionary book that speaks, indeed sings, to both children and adults and is, at once, compelling, profond, and entertaining.

• The Sweet Breath of Life: A Poetic Narrative of the African-American Family (2004), Frank Stewart, ed. and Kamoinge Inc. , Photographer
  Words and images come together in this inspiring collaboration between renowned poet Ntozake Shange and Kamoinge Inc., a group of acclaimed photographers whose work documents and celebrates the African-American experience.

  Collaborations between writers and photographers have provided African Americans with important focus for issues of identity and representation -- or lack thereof -- ever since the first publication of The Sweet Flypaper of Life by Langston Hughes and Roy DeCarava in 1955. Frank Stewart, with his fellow photographers in Kamoinge Inc., and Ntozake Shange -- a longtime fan of photography -- were inspired by this landmark work and committed themselves to continuing the tradition and the artistic conversation into this first decade of this new millennium.

  In 1963, Roy DeCarava -- renowned photographer and first president of the Kamoinge Workshop -- set the aesthetic and philosophical tone of the group in response to biased representations of African Americans in the media. As image-makers, the Kamoinge members have sought to shed positive light on their subjects, and to demystify Black life in America. With stunning images from such acclaimed photographers as Anthony Barboza, Adger W. Cowans, Ming Smith Murray, andpoems by Ntozake Shange, one of the most accomplished writers of her time, The Sweet Breath of Life is a rich and thought-provoking book, destined to become a classic work of American photography and literature.

• Black Book (1986) with Robert Mapplethorpe
  Forward by Ntozake Shange
  In Black Book, Robert Mapplethorpe presents an astonishing photographic study of black men today. In their diversity, impact, subtlety, technical virtuosity, erotic appeal, and deep humanity, these photographs constitute a stunning celebration of the contemporary black male."all my life they've been near me/these men" says Ntozake Shange in her Foreword, "i've been holdin your heart in/my hand since i was a child/cause i wanted what all you were/what all you are/now you're a man."

• Selected from Contemporary American Plays (1990) by Jules Feiffer, Horton Foote, Marsha Norman,  aSome Men nd Ntozake Shange

• Ntozake Shange: A Critical Study of The Plays (1995) by Neal A. Lester

• Black Women's Writing: Quest for Identity in the Plays of Lorraine Hansberry and Ntozake Shange (1998) by Y. Sarada;

• Love's Fire: Seven New Plays Inspired by Seven Shakespearean Sonnets (1998)
  The greatest love poetry in the English language provides the springboard for master playwrights' never-before-published works about the triumphs and tragedies of the heart. The sonnets and plays in Loves' Fire are the seeds and fruit of an extraordinary project: seven sonnets by Shakespeare, newly envisioned for the stage, in one-act plays by seven brilliantly gifted contemporary playwrights.  Includes works by Eric Bogosian, John Guare, Marsha Norman, Ntozake Shange, Tony Kushner, William Finn, and  Wendy Wasserstein.

• In Search of a Model for African-American Drama (2000) by Philip Uko Effiong
  In Search of a Model for African-American Drama - A study of Selected plays by Lorraine Hansberry, Amiri Baraka, and Ntozake Shange, is a comparative study of how these three dramatists seek and devise new models to address the specific conditions of Blacks in America. Each writer relies on a different approach, each powerful, yet apparently contradictory. The author examines the dramatists' work in detail, exploring common and contrasting themes and models.