Author(s): Sandra Hollin Flowers Source: Black American Literature Forum, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Summer, 1981), pp. 51-54 Published by: St. Louis University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2904081 . Accessed: 14/04/2014 09:35 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . St. Louis University and Indiana State University are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Black American Literature Forum. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 98.191.169.34 on Mon, 14 Apr 2014 09:35:14 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions COLORED GIRLS: TEXTBOOK FOR THE EIGHTIES SANDRA HOLLIN FLOWERS There are as many ways of looking at Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide! When the Rainbow Is Enuf as there are hues in a rainbow. One can take it as an initiation piece, for instance, particularly with its heavily symbolic "Graduation Nite" and the girlhood perspectives of the mama's little baby/ Sally Walker segment and in the voice of the eight-year-old narrator of "Tous- saint." Colored Girls also might be seen as a black feminist statement in that it offers a black woman's perspective on issues made prominent by the women's movement. Still another approach is to view it as a literary coming-of-age of black womanhood in the form of a series of testimonies which, in Shange's words, "explore the realities of seven different kinds of women."'" Indeed, the choreopoem is so rich that it lends itself to multiple interpretations which vary according to one's perspective and experiences. I would suggest, however, that the least appropriate responses are those exemplified by reviewers who said that black men will find themselves portrayed in Colored Girls "as brutal con men and amorous double-dealers";2 or that "The thematic emphasis is constantly directed at the stupid crudity and downright brutality of [black] men."3 Com- ments such as these are particularly misleading because they appear in reviews which contain generous praise for Colored Girls, thus suggesting that it is the condemnation of black men, which gives the book its merit. Too, such comments have the effect of diminishing the work to nothing more than a diatribe against black men, when, quite the contrary, Shange demonstrates a compassionate vision of black men compassionate because though the work is not with- out anger, it has a certain integrity which could not exist if the author lacked a perceptive understanding of the crisis between black men and women. And there is definitely a crisis. Individually we have known this for some time, and lately black women as well as black men are showing growing concern about the steady deterioration of their relationships.4 Black literature, how- ever, has lagged somewhat behind. The works which usually comprise Afro-American literature curricula and become part of general reading materials, for instance, show the position of the black man in America; but generally we see the black woman only peripherally as the protagonist's lover, wife, mother, or in some other supporting (or detract- ing) role. Certainly black women can identify with the pre- dicament of black men. Black women can identify, for example, with the problems articulated in Ellison's Invisible Man because they share the same predicaments. But for black women the predicament of the black male protagonist is compounded by concerns which affect them on yet another level. This, then, is what makes Colored Girls an important work which ranks with Ellison's Invisible Man, Wright's Native Son, and the handful of other black classics-it is an artistically successful female perspective on a long-standing issue among black people. If, however, black men fail to acknowledge the significance of Colored Girls, if they resent it or insist that is does not speak to their concerns or is not important because it deals with "women's issues," then the crisis is more severe than any thought it to be. Colored Girls is certainly woman's art but it is also black art, or Third World art, as Shange probably would prefer to have it designated. Its language and dialect, its geography, its music, and the numerous allusions to Third World per- sonalities make it an intensely cultural work. Much of these characteristics, however, are peculiar to Shange's upbring- ing, education, and experiences, with the result that the piece loses universality at points, as in the poem "Now I Love Somebody More Than" (pp. 11-13). But even here, black audiences are sure to know which lady loved garde- 51 This content downloaded from 98.191.169.34 on Mon, 14 Apr 2014 09:35:14 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions nias; they will know the Flamingoes and Archie Shepp and Imamu. Then there is the poem "Sechita" (pp. 23-25) in which the dancer is linked to Nefertiti, hence to Africa and Olduvai Gorge, the "cradle of civilization"-all of which puts into perspective the cheapening of Sechita by the carni- val audience. While "Sechita" speaks to the degradation of black womanhood, "Toussaint" (p. 25-30) speaks of the black woman's discovery of black pride. It also speaks, with subtle irony, of the black woman's awakening to the black man. Even "Latent Rapists' " (pp. 17-21) and "Abortion Cycle #1 " (pp. 22-23), which seem to deal exclusively with women's issues, are of political significance to black men. It is difficult to politicize rape among black women, for instance, because the feminist approach began with a strongly anti-male senti- ment, whereas the black community is highly male-identi- fied. Furthermore, blacks have their own historical perspec- tive on rape-the thousands of black men who were lynched for "rape" of white women. The history of these persecutions, however, does not remove the black woman's need for a political consciousness about rape, such as the traditionally feminist one Shange articulates. By the same token, Shange has sensitively portrayed the trauma of abor- tion, a trauma which, to some extent, probably exists in every case, no matter how strongly a woman might advocate the right to choose abortion. Still, the black movement's rhetoric linking birth control to genocide cannot be lightly dismissed. These considerations ought to make clear the delicate balance between blackness and womanhood which Shange manages to strike in Colored Girls. Maintaining this balance is no easy task, and the black woman writer of some political consciousness is under tremendous pressure not to sacrifice issues of blackness to those of womanhood and vice versa. As suggested, however, the primary focus of Colored Girls is on the quality of relationships between black women and their men. This focus dominates the last half of the work, beginning with "One" (pp. 31-35), in which loneliness is seen to be more powerful than sensuality. This loneliness- sensuality juxtaposition is an especially effective way of raising the issue of woman as a strictly sexual being rather than a person with the full range of human emotions and needs. Before we even know where the poem is headed, we have an instinctive understanding of why this woman "wanted to be unforgettable," why "she wanted to be a memory/a wound to every man/arragant [sic] enough to want her" (p. 32). Now in the prime of her sensuality and physical attractiveness, this woman is . . . the wrath of women in windows fingering shades/ol lace curtains camoflagin despair & stretchmarks. (p. 32) At the end of the poem, though, we see that all along the woman has known that sensuality at its worst, which is what it has been reduced to in her case, is merely a surrogate for mutual caring and understanding. It is only a matter of time, she seems to know, until she will become one of those loveless women in the windows, camouflaging her own de- spair and stretch marks. And notice that Shange equates despair and stretch marks: they are one and the same in the game played by the woman in "One." This, however, is but one kind of despair. A more overt kind is evident in "A Nite with Beau Willie Brown" (pp. 55-60), in which Shange skillfully weaves craft and theme in a poem about a young couple who have been lovers for nine years. As the narrative begins, Beau Willie and his woman Crystal are separated because Crystal, frightened by his erratic, brutal behavior toward her and their children, has gotten a court order barring Beau Willie from their apart- ment. Angry and indignant about Crystal's refusal to see him, Beau Willie forces his way into the apartment, coaxes the children to him and, dissatisfied with Crystal's response to his demands that she marry him, drops the children from the fifth story window. The foregoing summary leaves out much that is revealed about Beau Willie during the narrative. He is, first of all, a Vietnam veteran experiencing a typical maladjustment upon coming back to the States. His situation is worsened by the fact that he is one of the thousands of black veterans who have their own horror stories of the front-line expe- rience in Vietnam. Beau Willie is drug-dependent, shell- shocked, psychotic, disoriented, and paranoid: he'd see the spotlights in the alleyways downstairs movin in the air/cross his wall over his face/& get under the covers & wait for an all clear or till he cd hear traffic again. (p. 55) Yet, "there waznt nothin wrong with him/he kept tellin crystal . . ." (p. 55). We can also deduce from the narrative that before he went to Vietnam, Beau had almost certainly been victimized by racism in the schools he attended "he cdnt read wortha damn." When he returned home and tried to attend school on the GI Bill, "they kept right on puttin him in remedial classes . . . so beau cused the teachers of holdin him back & got himself a gypsy cab to drive. .." (p. 56). His cab was always breaking down, though; he couldn't make much money, was robbed of what little he did make, and was frequently harassed by the police. The pattern is obvious: Beau Willie Brown is the quintes- sential black man of his generation. By this, I do not mean, nor does Shange intend to imply, that Beau Willie Brown is all there is to black manhood. Conversely, I am not suggest- ing that the political realities embodied in Beau Williejustify his treatment of or his attitude toward Crystal. Instead, I believe that Shange's compassion for black men surfaces most noticeably in this poem and that her characterization of Beau Willie recognizes some of the external factors which influence relationships between black men and women. Twenty-five years ago, Beau Willie could have been a black Korean War veteran; thirty years ago, he might have been one of the black Tuskegee pilots who flew combat missions in World War II but were denied jobs as commercial airline pilots while their white counterparts were hired; sixty years ago he easily could have been one of World War I's black veterans who returned home to lynchings rather than heroes' welcomes. This poem is purely political, although it has been misun- derstood by critics.5 Here, we are again talking about a question of perspective, specifically an artist's perspective which can transform a passing incident into a poem of far-reaching and chilling significance. On the writing of "A 52 This content downloaded from 98.191.169.34 on Mon, 14 Apr 2014 09:35:14 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Nite with Beau Willie Brown," Shange, who was staying in a Harlem boarding house when she wrote the poem, says It was hot. I was broke. I didn't have enough money for a subway token. I was miserable. The man in the next room was beating up his old lady. It went on for hours and hours. She was screaming. He was laughing. Everytime he hit her I would think, yeah, man, well that had already happened to me. So I sat down and wrote "Beau Willie." All my anger came out.6 One might assume that the anger is directed toward Beau Willie, the surrogate for the woman-beating neighbor, because of Shange's use of comic similes "like he waz an ol frozen bundle of chicken.. ." (p. 55), or "beau sat straight up in the bed/wrapped up in the sheets lookin like john the baptist or a huge baby with stubble & nuts. . . " (p. 56). The comic elements, however, are so grotesque that Beau emerges as a tragic figure and it becomes apparent that Shange's anger is in response to the circumstances and impulses whatever they are-which result in men brutaliz- ing women. Consequently, while our sympathies might at first be entirely with Crystal, we ultimately come to under- stand that her pain is also Beau's and vice versa. Finally, the significance of Beau Willie's and Crystal's children must not be overlooked. Their names Naomi Kenya and Kwame Beau Willie are important, for both contain elements of the African and the Western, the mis- cegenation which resulted in the Afro-American. Further, the girl and boy can be seen as nascent black womanhood and manhood. Literally and metaphorically, then, in drop- ping the children, Beau Willie is not only committing murder and since they are his offspring suicide; but he is also killing the hope of black manhood and womanhood. Similarly, in "Pyramid" (pp. 39-42) three friends are pursued by one man. Two of them become involved with him but he rejects them both for yet another woman. If for no other reason than the fact that black women outnumber black men (by over 700,000, according to 1977 census data7), it is probable that most black women will be part of some kind of multiple love relationship, with or without their knowledge and cooperation. Shange's concept of a pyramid for portraying this circumstance offers a graphic illustration of how women function in such relationships. Like the women in this poem, clusters of women form a pyramid from which a man can select partners. The women's position on the pyramid shifts: they find themselves at the bottom occasionally, but they usually have some time at the top, as do the two friends in the poem. Seen in this way, as a simple reflection of reality, the man in Shange's "Pyramid" is not as heartless as the poem may suggest; he is merely exercising a prerogative which black women and circumstances have given him. This particular pyramid, however, is made up of close friends, which makes the man's actions seem more callous. But theoretically, they are all sisters. therefore, whether or not they are friends with the other women in the pyramid, the man's playing them off against each other is potentially humiliating and painful for each, as the women in "Pyra- mid" find out. In theory, then, they should feel as much compassion for the discarded women in their own pyramids as they feel for the freinds in Shange's poem when, at the end, the woman who was first rejected comforts her friend who has also been rejected: she held her head on her lap the lap of her sisters soakin up tears each understandin how much love stood between them how much love between them love between them love like sisters. (p. 42) But there is a great deal of ambivalence in these lines, just as there is in black women's relationships with each other. On the one hand, we might say that the sisterly love which previously existed between these women has been restored by the pain the man has given them. This interpretation would be in keeping with the upbeat ending of Colored Girls in which the women affirm themselves and each other. However, this idealistic interpretation is undermined by the incident of the rose. The first woman, in a mute gesture of love, leaves a rose by the man's pillow; she later finds this rose on her friend's desk. Betrayed by both her lover and her friend, it is no wonder that the poor woman is speechless as her friend tells her . . . i dont wanna hurt you but you know i need someone now & you know how wonderful he is. (p. 41) One should note the irony and delicacy of language with which Shange has rendered the pain women inflict upon each other in the name of love. The love that stands between the two women is not necessarily love for one another, but their respective love for the man who has hurt them both. The "love between them," then, is a destructive presence which divides them. They cannot be like sisters again until they reexamine their priorities and find the true importance of themselves and of each other. This is precisely what they proceed to do in the following sequence of poems, those entitled "No More Love Poems." Here, of course, Shange is being ironic, because what she calls "No More Love Poems" is actually love poetry of the most explicit and poignant kind. Each poem exposes the persona so completely that one understands that she is basically defenseless and vulnerable as far as love is con- cerned. More important, in being so open, each woman takes an awesome risk: If her lover has a misguided notion of manhood, his response to her admissions may be terribly painful for her because he will not be able to drop the poses his self-image requires and allow himself to be equally open and vulnerable with her. The pathos of this group of poems is probably most evident in "No More Love Poems #2." Here the lady in purple, who, piteously, used to "linger in non-english speakin arms so there waz no possibility of understandin" (p. 43) represents the epitome of the loveless love affair. Her inability to understand anything said by the person of the "non-english speakin arms" is symbolic of woman's attempts to understand man. He does not speak her language which is to say that he is unable to express the kinds of feelings that she is capable of putting into words. At the same time, he lacks the ability to understand her and so she can never hope to make clear to him the things that are important to her. While it may seem ridiculous that the lady in purple would deliberately involve herself with someone she knows cannot understand her, this is precisely what happens in every relationship in which communication is absent. In our na- ivete, we might once have entered relationships under the 53 This content downloaded from 98.191.169.34 on Mon, 14 Apr 2014 09:35:14 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions assumption that we and our lovers would somehow know what each of us wanted and needed. That, after all, is supposed to be the nature of love: it does not lend itself to scrutiny and questioning and explication; it simply exists. In a less complex society or one in which love is of minimal importance to the success of a relationship, perhaps this is true. But here in the fragmented, abrasive universe of Amer- ica, where intimate relationships are nearly the only outlet for expressing affection and caring; where the partnership or the family unit might be all to which one can really be said to belong; where, in short, one depends upon one's loved one for emotional sustenance-in such a climate, it becomes imperative for black women and men to articulate their needs and expectations of one another. Black men and women have not communicated success- fully. It might even be said that they have tried everything imaginable to avoid articulating their needs-extended fam- ilies, promiscuity, no-strings-attached fatherhood, getting/ staying high together, even the Black Power Movement in which black people were all sisters and brothers, which meant that everyone naturally had everyone else's welfare at heart and so there was no need to explain anything. Like the lady in purple, many black women find themselves saying, "i dont know any more tricks/i am really colored and really sad sometimes . . ." (p. 44). Shange has given us an exquisite and very personal view of the politics of black womanhood and black male-female relationships. Too few black writers are doing that- perhaps because the truth is really as painful as that depicted in Colored Girls, and in telling it one opens oneself to charges of dividing the race and exposing blacks to ridicule by reinforcing stereotypes. That allegation has been levied against Colored Girls, which is unfortunate because the only thing of which Ntozake Shange is guilty is a sincere, elo- quent rendering of what she has come to understand about black love relationships. Critics cannot afford to insist that black writers forgo expressing such visions simply because they are painful, embarrassing, or potentially divisive. If that is true, maybe it is because blacks have been so preoccu- pied with political and economic survival that they no longer know, if they ever did, how to confront their own responsi- bility for what happens between black men and women; in that case, blacks really do have a great need for Colored Girls and similar works. "A Nite with Beau Willie Brown" seems particularly suitable for putting the problems of blacks into perspective. We know that there was a period in their relationship when Crystal wanted very much to be Beau Willie's wife. She was asking for a commitment, an affirmation of their relation- ship, which is precisely what the women in "Sorry," in "No More Love Poems," in "One" in real life, in fact-are asking. Beau Willie, like the black men on whom he was modeled, had consistently told Crystal, "nothin doin." Finally, when Beau Willie wanted Crystal, needed her, in fact, to affirm himself, he found, but did not understand, that she had had to turn from him to ensure her own survival. NOTES 'Ntozake Shange, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow Is Enuf (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1977), p. xii. All references are to this edition and are given parenthetically in the text. 2T. E. Kalem, "He Done Her Wrong," rev. of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow Is Enuf, by Ntozake Shange, Time, 14 June 1976, p. 74. 3Harold Clurman, rev. of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide! When the Rainbow Is Enuf, by Ntozake Shange, The Nation, 17 May 1976, p. 542. 4What amounts to a small movement has developed in response to this crisis-college courses on the black family, a periodical called Black Male/ Female Relationships, nationwide workshops and discussion groups, and numerous articles in journals. See Diane Weathers et al., "A New Black Struggle," Newsweek, 27 August 1979, pp. 58-60. Additionally, Alice Walker explores the black male-female crisis in her novel The Third Life of Copeland Grange (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1970) and Michele Wallance analyzes the crisis in political perspective in Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman (New York: Dial Press, 1979). 5Clurman, in describing Tarzana Beverly's Broadway rendition of "A Nite with Beau Willie Brown," calls the poem a "tragically violent story about her good lover" (emphasis added). Kalem refers to the poem as "a crude tale of love and blood lust." 6"Trying to Be Nice," rev. of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide! When the Rainbow Is Enuf, by Ntozake Shange, Time, 19 July 1976, pp. 44-45. 7Weathers et al., p. 58. AFRICA AND THE WEST: THE CHALLENGE OF AFRICAN HUMANISM The Humanities College of The Ohio State University is pleased to announce a major conference on "Africa and the West: The Challenge of African Humanism" to be held in Columbus, Ohio, during late May 1982. At a time when Africa is becoming an increasingly important factor in world trade and foreign policy, it is necessary for Americans and others to obtain a better understanding of the world views, philosophical assumptions, and cultural backgrounds upon which African societies are based. Because chronic problems of underdevelopment, a colonial legacy, and inexperienced leadership have sometimes obscured the contribution which Africa can make to the contemporary Western world, the focus of the conference will be upon the nature of this contribution. Papers and suggestions for seminar or workshop presentations are invited, and they may be in any relevant field-politics, economics, journalism, publishing, religion, literature, history, the arts, music, philosophy, folklore, anthropology, etc. Papers on specific topics, such as the socio- political problems of Southern Africa or the relationship between Africans and blacks in the diaspora, as well as interdisciplinary, comparative studies, are particularly welcome. All inquiries and proposals for papers should be sent by September 30, 1981, to Professor Isaac Mowoe, Department of Black Studies, The Ohio State University, 486 University Hall, 230 North Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210 or to Professor Richard Bjornson, Division of Comparative Studies, The Ohio State University, 334 Dulles Hall, 230 West 17th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210. 54 This content downloaded from 98.191.169.34 on Mon, 14 Apr 2014 09:35:14 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions