Ntozake Shange (Playwright, for colored girls) revolutionized theater with her seminal work, for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf. Opening on Broadway in September 1976, the ‘choreopoem’, as Shange identified it, became the longest running Broadway play authored by an African American playwright and the choreopoem, as an art form, found a home in American theater. Widely produced domestically on an annual basis, a production of for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf will debut in London this fall. Shange’s published works include twenty-five volumes of poetry, plays, novels, essays, children’s books and expositions. A volume of her unpublished works, Sing A
Black Girl’s Song, was published posthumously in 2023. Shange was also a performing artist who appeared with leading jazz artists and dancers/choreographers, including David Murray, Cecil Taylor, Oliver Lake and Dianne McIntyre, among others. The Ntozake Shange Trust, managed by Paul T. Williams, Jr., Shange’s brother, oversees the management of her literary estate. Shange’s archives are housed at her alma mater, Barnard College.
