Have you ever heard of Ntozake Shange?

If you haven’t, open your eyes and ears now!

She is an American poet, playwright and novelist who has created and written several plays, poems and novels. On top of that, she is an African American feminist. She is well known for her choreopoem called ‘for colored girls who considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf.’

Eventually, the choreopoem was made into a movie under the direction of Tyler Perry. NY Times’ writer, Manohla Dargis, wrote an article called “A Powerful Chorus Harmonizing ‘Dark Phrases of Womanhood’” where described it as the movie as, “a classic of its unapologetic feminist era, consisting of some 20 poems accompanied by choreographed movement and music, including a blast of Martha and the Vandellas. The characters are seven chromatically differentiated women (brown, yellow, purple, red, green, blue and orange) from points across the country, who recite “dark phrases of womanhood” (the first words in the play) involving infanticide, incest and other horrors (Mr. Perry adds two more women).”

At first, I watched the movie and felt the devastation in each scene. I literally wanted to shake every woman to make them see that some things were common sense, but to no avail. And like the characters, we see only what we want to see. It was no secret that I cried at the end. Now that I am completing work study as the History department assistant, the professor I work for told me that the African American Museum in Philadelphia was hold an event called, “I found myself in God: the 40^th Anniversary of Ntozake Shange’s ‘For Colored Girls.’” The exhibition includes several commissioned artworks that explore the themes of sexuality, race, sisterhood, violence and etc. The exhibition will be opened from October 1^st to January 2nd, 2017. It is certainly not a long exhibit, so plan a trip soon!

It’s no secret that this book refers to so many themes that most people do not discuss and centers on the topic of feminism. While reading the book, I found some very powerful lines that struck me. Here are the top 8 quotes from Shange’s ‘For Colored Girls.’

1. “She’s been dead so long/ closed in so long/ she doesn’t know the sound/ of her own voice/ her infinite beauty”

2. "So/ With no further assistance & no guidance from you/ I am endin this affair// this note is attached to a plant/ I’ve been waterin since the day I met you/ you may water it/ yr damn self”

3. “Women relinquish all personal rights/ in the presence of a man/ who apparently cd be considered a rapist// especially if he has been considered a friend.”

4. “Ever since I realized there waz someone callt/ a colored girl an evil woman a bitch or a nag/ I been trying not to be that & leave bitterness/ in someone else’s cup/ come to somebody to love me without deep and nasty smellin scald from lye or bein left screamin in a street fulla lunatics”

5. “Somebody almost run off wit alla my stuff/ & I waz standin there/ lookin at myself/ the whole time/ & it wazn’t a spirit took my stuff/ waz a man whose ego walked round like Rodan’s shadow/ was a man faster n my innocence/ waz a lover/ I made too much room for/ almost run off wit alla my stuff”

6. “One thing I don’t need/ is any apologies/ I got sorry greetin me at my front door/ you can keep yrs”

7. “I loved you on purpose/ I waz open on purpose/ I still crave vulnerability & close talk/ & I’m not even sorry bout you being sorry/ you can carry all the guilt & grime ya wanna/ just don’t give it to me/ I can’t use another sorry”

8. "I found god in myself & I loved her/ I loved her fiercely.”