ENG 1124 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Theatricality, Ntozake Shange, Choreopoem
13 Sep 2016
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For colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf. Difficult to discern the best way to read/experience this poem. Shange preface to first edition (not in copy) The poems and the dance worked on their own to do and be what they were . A sequence of twenty poems, with eight speaking voices. Sometimes these voices take on other characters; sometimes the voices seem to merge. Textually, the poems appear to be free verse, with non-standard spelling of many words and the slash mark used for line breaks inserted in the middle of many lines. Poets don"t use their bodies when performing their poetry. The choreopoem cannot be experienced as such without the inclusion of dancing and music. However, the written text includes nonstandard elements that would be missed in a live performance, such as the spelling of words like waz, cd, and nite .
