Book review: "Wild Beauty " by Ntozake Shange
Ntozake Shange
The billboard on 42nd Street near Times Square  was half a block long. Scrawled in rainbow colors was the title of an innovative new play  “for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf.” And adorning that 1977 billboard was a portrait of a young black woman in a do-rag: the playwright Ntozake Shange .
 Shange’s  rise to international fame and  her  sudden disappearance — followed by decades of physical and mental health challenges — are part of one of the most dramatic lives in Broadway history. Now   Shange  reflects on these events and more in a new collection of poetry called “Wild Beauty.”
In 1975   Shange  had arrived in New York from California with  her  dancer friend Paula Moss and a satchel of poems.  She  and Moss began reading and dancing to  Shange ’s poems in New York cafes. The next thing  Shange  knew   she  was being whisked off by theatrical producer Woodie King Jr.  who told  her  what  she ’d really written was a play. After a few weeks of working with King and others   Shange  winnowed  her  poems down to the voices of seven women  who remain nameless but can be identified by the colors of their dresses.
Author Ntozake Shange (Adger Cowans)
Miraculously  she typed out her first new poem in years  an overview of her whole life. Titled “these blessings ” it appears in her new collection  “Wild Beauty ” which contains more than 60 new and previously published poems  all of which are also translated into Spanish by Alejandro Álvarez Nieves. The bilingual edition was  Shange ’s idea  reflecting her lifelong concern with the African diaspora throughout the Americas.
There is no question that  Shange  is a black writer. Not only does she write in a style that mimics the sound and syntax of black speech  but much of her material is drawn from the daily realities of black life. No poet since Langston Hughes has insisted so forcefully on black people’s right to simply be:
The billboard on 42nd Street near Times Square  was half a block long. Scrawled in rainbow colors was the title of an innovative new play  “for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf.” And adorning that 1977 billboard was a portrait of a young black woman in a do-rag: the playwright Ntozake Shange .
 Shange’s  rise to international fame and  her  sudden disappearance — followed by decades of physical and mental health challenges — are part of one of the most dramatic lives in Broadway history. Now   Shange  reflects on these events and more in a new collection of poetry called “Wild Beauty.”
In 1975   Shange  had arrived in New York from California with  her  dancer friend Paula Moss and a satchel of poems.  She  and Moss began reading and dancing to  Shange ’s poems in New York cafes. The next thing  Shange  knew   she  was being whisked off by theatrical producer Woodie King Jr.  who told  her  what  she ’d really written was a play. After a few weeks of working with King and others   Shange  winnowed  her  poems down to the voices of seven women  who remain nameless but can be identified by the colors of their dresses.
[TGT][TGT] typed out [TGT] first new poem in years  an overview of [TGT] whole life. Titled “these blessings ” it appears in [TGT] new collection  “Wild Beauty ” which contains more than 60 new and previously published poems  all of which are also translated into Spanish by Alejandro Álvarez Nieves. The bilingual edition was  Shange ’s idea  reflecting [TGT] lifelong concern with the African diaspora throughout the Americas.
There is no question that  Shange  is a black writer. Not only does [TGT] write in a style that mimics the sound and syntax of black speech  but much of [TGT] material is drawn from the daily realities of black life. No poet since Langston Hughes has insisted so forcefully on black people’s right to simply be: