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Ntozake Shange (pronounced En-toe-ZAHK-kay SHONG-gay) (born October 18, 1948) is an African American playwright, dancer, actor, director, author, lecturer, installation artist, and poet[1]. Events 1009 - The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian church in Jerusalem, is completely destroyed by the Fatimid Year 1948 ( MCMXLVIII) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or Drama. An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created A poet is a person who writes Poetry. Etymology From the Ancient greek: ποιέω, poieō: "I make or compose" As a self proclaimed black feminist, much of the content of her work addresses issues relating to race and feminism. Feminism is a discourse that involves various movements theories, and Philosophies which are concerned with the issue of Gender difference, advocate

She is best-known for her Obie Award winning play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf. The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards bestowed by The Village Voice newspaper to Off-Broadway Theater A play, or stageplay, is a form of Literature written by a Playwright, almost always consisting of Dialogue between Fictional characters For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf is a 1975 stageplay by Ntozake Shange.

She also wrote Betsey Brown, a novel about an African American girl who runs away from home. Betsey Brown by Ntozake Shange is a novel which deals with very important matters concerning African-Americans. Among her honors and awards are fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, and a Pushcart Prize. The Pushcart Prize is a prestigious American Literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry short fiction essays or literary whatnot" published Shange lives in Philadelphia. Philadelphia (ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə

Contents

Life

Shange was born Paulette Williams in Trenton, New Jersey[1] to an upper middle class family. Trenton is the Capital of the US state of New Jersey and the County seat of Mercer County. Her father, Paul T. Williams, was an Air Force surgeon and her mother, Eloise Williams, was an educator and a psychiatric social worker. An air force, also known in some countries as an air army or historically an army air corps, is in the broadest sense the national military or armed service When she was eight, Shange's family moved to the racially segregated city of St. Louis. As a result of the Brown v. Board of Education court decision, Shange was bused to a white school where she endured racism and racist attacks. Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, 347 US 483 (1954 was a Landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court, which overturned earlier List of racism-related topics|Racism by country Racism, by its simplest definition is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that

Shange's family had a strong interest in the arts and encouraged her artistic education. Among the guests at their home were Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Chuck Berry, and W. E. B. Du Bois. John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie ( October 21 1917 &ndash January 6 1993) was an American Jazz Trumpeter Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26 1926 &ndash September 28 1991 was an American Jazz Trumpeter, Bandleader, and Composer. Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry (born October 18 1926 in St William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (duːˈbɔɪz ( February 23, 1868 August 27, 1963) was an American Civil rights activist

When Shange was thirteen, she returned to New Jersey, where she completed high school. New Jersey ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. In 1966 Shange enrolled at Barnard College. Barnard College is a women's liberal arts college founded in 1889 She graduated cum laude in American Studies, then earned a master's degree in the same field from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the study of the United States. The University of Southern California (commonly referred to as USC, SC, Southern California, and incorrectly Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West However, Shange's college years were not all pleasant. She married during her first year in college, but the marriage did not last long. Depressed over her separation and with a strong sense of bitterness and alienation, Shange attempted suicide.

In 1971, having come to terms to her depression and alienation, Shange changed her name. ("Ntozake" means "She who comes with her own things" and "Shange" means "she who walks like a lion" in Xhosa. See also Xhosa language The Xhosa (ǁʰɔsɑ( people are speakers of Bantu languages living in south-east South Africa, and in the last two [2]

Career

In 1975, Shange moved to New York City, where in that year her first and most well-known play was produced, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf. The City of New York First produced Off-Broadway, the play soon moved onto Broadway at the Booth Theatre and won a number of awards, including the Obie Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, and the AUDELCO Award. Off-Broadway plays or musicals are performed in New York City. Broadway theater, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 39 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards bestowed by The Village Voice newspaper to Off-Broadway Theater The Outer Critics Circle Awards are presented annually for theatrical achievements both on and Off-Broadway and were begun during the 1949-1950 theater season AUDELCO, the Audience Development Committee Inc, was established in 1973 by the late Vivian Robinson to honor excellence in New York African American This play, her most famous piece, was a twenty part poem chronicling the lives of black females in the United States. The poem was eventually made into the state play, and is now available as a book as well. Since then, Shange has written a number of successful plays, including an adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children (1980), which won an Obie Award. Mother Courage and Her Children (Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder is a play written in 1939 by the German dramatist and poet Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956

In 2003, Shange wrote and oversaw the production of Lavender Lizards and Lilac Landmines: Layla's Dream while serving as a visiting artist at the University of Florida, Gainesville.

Individual poems, essays, and short stories of hers have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including the Black Scholar, Yardbird, MS, Essence Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and Third World Women[2]. Essence is an American Fashion, Lifestyle and Entertainment Magazine. The Chicago Tribune is a major daily Newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and owned by the Tribune Company

Awards

NDEA fellow, 1973; Obie Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Audience Development Committee (Audelco) Award, Mademoiselle Award, and Tony, Grammy, and Emmy award nominations, all 1977, all for For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf; Frank Silvera Writers' Workshop Award, 1978; Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry, 1981, for Three Pieces; Guggenheim fellowship, 1981; Medal of Excellence, Columbia University, 1981; Obie Award, 1981, for Mother Courage and Her Children; Nori Eboraci Award, Barnard College, 1988; Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund annual writer's award, 1992; Paul Robeson Achievement Award, 1992; Arts and Cultural Achievement Award, National Coalition of 100 Black Women (Pennsylvania chapter), 1992; Taos World Poetry Heavyweight Champion, 1992, 1993, 1994; Living Legend Award, National Black Theatre Festival, 1993; Claim Your Life Award, WDAS-AM/FM, 1993; Monarch Merit Award, National Council for Culture and Art; Pushcart Prize[3].

Works

Plays

Poetry

Novels

Children's Books

References

  1. ^ Lester,N: "At the Heart of Shange's Feminism: An Interview", Black American Literature Forum, 24(4): 717-730
  2. ^ Blackwell, H: An Interview with Ntozake Shange", Black American Literature Forum, 13(4): 134-138
  3. Thomson, Gale.  (2007).  Ntozake Shange.  In Contemporary Authors Online.  Apr 2008. 

  4. Weaver, A .  A.  (2005).  Ntozake Shange Biographical Information.  In Women of Color, Women of Words.  Apr 2008.

External links

Persondata
NAME Shange, Ntozake
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Paulette Williams (Birth name)
SHORT DESCRIPTION Contemporary African American writer and performance artist
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Trenton, New Jersey, United States
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Events 1009 - The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian church in Jerusalem, is completely destroyed by the Fatimid Year 1948 ( MCMXLVIII) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Trenton is the Capital of the US state of New Jersey and the County seat of Mercer County. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the
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