for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf is a 1976 work by Ntozake Shange. It consists of a series of poetic monologues to be accompanied by dance movements and music, a form which Shange coined the word choreopoem to describe.Carr, Jane (October 28, 2018), "What 'For Colored Girls' meant to us", CNN. It tells the stories of seven women who have suffered oppression in a racist and sexist society.
As a choreopoem, the piece is a series of 20 separate poems choreographed to music that weaves interconnected stories of love, empowerment, struggle and loss into a complex representation of sisterhood. The cast consists of seven nameless African-American women only identified by the colors they are assigned. They are the lady in red, lady in orange, lady in yellow, lady in green, lady in blue, lady in brown, and lady in purple. Subjects including rape, abandonment, abortion and domestic violence are tackled.
Shange originally wrote the monologues as separate poems in 1974. Her writing style is idiosyncratic and she often uses vernacular language, unique structure, and unorthodox punctuation to emphasize syncopation. Shange wanted to write for colored girls... in a way that mimicked how real women speak so she could draw her readers' focus to the experience of reading and listening.
In December 1974, Shange performed the first incarnation of her choreopoem with four other artists at a women's bar outside Berkeley, California. After moving to New York City, she continued work on for colored girls..., which went on to open at the Booth Theatre in 1976, becoming the second play by a black woman to reach Broadway, preceded by Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun in 1959. Shange updated the original choreopoem in 2010, by adding the poem "positive" and referencing the Iraq War and PTSD.
for colored girls... has been performed Off-Broadway as well as on Broadway, and was adapted as a book (first published in 1976 by Shameless Hussy Press), a 1982 television film, and a 2010 theatrical film. The 1976 Broadway production was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play and the 2022 Broadway production was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play.
Title
for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf is inspired by events in Shange's life. Shange admitted publicly to having attempted suicide on four occasions, at different times in her life, as early as her undergraduate years. In a phone interview conducted with CNN, she explained how she came to the title of her choreopoem: "I was driving the No. 1 Highway in Northern California and I was overcome by the appearance of two parallel rainbows. I had a feeling of near death or near catastrophe. Then I drove through the rainbow and I went away. Then I put that together to form the title." The colors of the rainbow then became the essence of the women in the choreopoem, named only after their color pseudonyms.
Shange also explains that she chose to use the word "colored" in the title of her choreopoem so that her grandmother would be able to understand it.
Poems "dark phrases" – Lady in Brown with Ladies in Red, Blue, Orange, Green, Yellow and Purple "graduation nite" – Lady in Yellow with Ladies in Blue, Green and Red "now i love somebody more than" – Lady in Blue with Ladies in Yellow, Blue, and Green "no assistance" – Lady in Red "i'm a poet who" – Lady in Orange with Ladies in Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple and Brown "latent rapists'" – Ladies in Red, Blue, Purple "abortion cycle #1" – Lady in Blue "sechita" – Lady in Purple "toussaint" – Lady in Brown "one" – Lady in Red "i usedta to live in the world" – Lady in Blue "pyramid" – Lady in Purple "no more love poems #1" – Lady in Orange "no more love poems #2" – Lady in Purple "no more love poems #3" – Lady in Blue "no more love poems #4" – Lady in Yellow "my love is too" – Ladies in Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Brown "somebody almost walked off wid alla my stuff" – Lady in Green "sorry" – Ladies in Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Brown "positive" – Ladies in Red, Yellow, Purple, Brown "a nite with beau willie brown" – Lady in Red, Orange "a laying on of hands" – Ladies in Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Brown
Synopsis Structurally, for colored girls is a series of 20-22 poems, depending on whether "my love is too" and "positive" are included in the list, collectively called a choreopoem. Shange's poetry expresses many struggles and obstacles that African-American women may face throughout their lives and is a representation of sisterhood and coming of age as an African-American woman. The poems are choreographed to music that weaves together interconnected stories. The choreopoem is performed by a cast of seven nameless women only identified by the colors they are assigned. They are the lady in red, lady in orange, lady in yellow, lady in green, lady in blue, lady in brown, and lady in purple. Subjects from rape, abandonment, abortion, and domestic violence are tackled. By the end of the play these women come together in a circle, symbolizing the unity they have found sharing their stories.
"dark phrases" – Lady in Brown with Ladies in Red, Blue, Orange, Green, Yellow and Purple The prologue of the choreopoem "dark phrases" begins with the lady in brown describing the "dark phrases of womanhood".Shange, p. 17. All she hears are screams and promises. Each woman states where she is from, by stating they are outside their respective cities. The lady in brown proclaims that this piece is all for "colored girls who have considered suicide / but moved to the ends of their own rainbows".Shange, p. 20. The women then begin to sing children's nursery rhymes, "mama's little baby likes shortnin, shortnin". Then all the ladies start to dance to the song "Dancing in the Street".
"graduation nite" – Lady in Yellow with Ladies in Blue, Green and Red The lady in yellow says it was graduation night and she was the only virgin. She was out driving around with her male friends who she has known since the seventh grade in a black Buick, laughing about graduation. After a fight breaks out, the lady in yellow and Bobby leave and end up having sex in the back of the Buick. The other ladies start talking about their sexual preferences.
"now i love somebody more than" – Lady in Blue with Ladies in Yellow, Blue, and Green The lady in blue talks about how she used to participate in dance marathons frequently. One night she refused to dance with anyone that only spoke English. Throughout the monologue she intertwines English and Spanish. During this time she discovered blues clubs. She says she became possessed by the music. She ends her monologue by calling it her poem "thank-you for music," to which she states: "I love you more than poem".Shange, p. 27. She repeats "te amo mas que," and the other women join her, softly chanting.
"no assistance" – Lady in Red The lady in red addresses an ambiguous "you" throughout the monologue. She has loved this "you" strongly and passionately "for 8 months, 2 wks, & a day" without any encouragement. She decides to end this affair and leaves a note attached to a plant that she has watered every day since she met this person.
"i'm a poet who does not like you" – Lady in Orange with Ladies in Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple and Brown The lady in orange begins by saying she does not want to write in neither English nor Spanish, but she only wants to dance. She forgets all about words when she starts to dance. She says "we gotta dance to keep from cryin and dyin" and the other ladies repeat her words.Shange, p. 29. The lady in orange then claims that she is a poet "who writes in english / come to share the worlds witchu".Shange, p. 30.
"latent rapists'" – Ladies in Red, Blue, Purple The lady in blue talks about how hard it is to press charges against a friend. The other women begin to ponder and ask questions. They say that maybe it was a misunderstanding, or the woman caused it, and they ask her if she was drinking. The lady in red states that society only believes someone is a rapist if they are a perverted stranger. The women talk about male friends of theirs who have nice smiles and buy them dinner but end up raping women. The women all share the experience of having been violated by a man they knew while being on the lookout for "the stranger we always thot it wd be".Shange, p. 34. The lady in red states that the "nature of rape has changed." The lights change, the women react to an imaginary slap.
"abortion cycle #1" – Lady in Blue The lady in blue sets the scene with tubes, tables, white washed windows, and her legs spread open. She could not bear to have people looking at her while she got an abortion so she is all alone.
"sechita" – Lady in Purple with Lady in Green The lady in purple describes Sechita's life in the bayou, while lady in green dances out Sechita's life. She is dressed up for the Creole carnival celebration. She embodies the spirit of her namesake, Sechita, the Egyptian goddess of creativity, love, beauty and filth from the 2nd millennium.
"toussaint" – Lady in Brown The lady in brown describes falling in love with Toussaint L'Ouverture, finding Toussaint in the library near the train tracks. The lady in brown talks about entering a contest to see which "colored child" could read 15 books in three weeks and the lady in brown won, but she was disqualified because she went into the adult reading room and read about Toussaint instead of reading the children's books. The lady in brown became obsessed with Toussaint despite the fact that he was dead. He was her "secret lover at age 8".Shange, p. 41. The lady in brown wanted to run away to go to Haiti with Toussaint. On her journey the lady in brown meets a young boy whose name is Toussaint Jones. The lady in brown feels likes she has met her real-life Toussaint and she leaves with him.
"one" – Lady in Red The lady in red enters begins by describing a beautiful woman wearing orange butterflies, silk roses, and aqua sequins. This woman is deliberate in all her actions. Although she walked slowly to allow men to gaze at her, she never returned their interest with a smile or acknowledging their catcalls. She was "hot / a deliberate coquette".Shange, p. 46. Her goal was to be unforgettable. She takes "those especially schemin/ tactful suitors" to go home with her. In the morning, she becomes her ordinary self by washing off the glitter and the grime from the night before. She asks her lovers to leave. The men would leave in a hurry, and then she cleaned up and put her roses away. She would write about her exploits in her diary and then, cry herself to sleep.
"i usedta to live in the world" – Lady in Blue The lady in blue begins her monologue by explaining that she used to live in the world but now only lives in Harlem, and her universe is only six blocks. She used to walk all over the world and now her world is small and dirty. The lady in blue says that when she used to live in the world where she was nice and sweet but now, now she cannot bring herself to be nice to anyone in this "six blocks of cruelty / piled up on itself".Shange, p. 53.
"pyramid" – Lady in Purple The lady in purple joins the ladies in blue, yellow, and orange. She starts by describing them as three friends who shared every aspect of their lives. They remember a time when they all were attracted to the same man, but he only could choose one of them. The one who he chose loved him, but worried if her friends could hold out. One day she found the rose she left on his pillow on her friend's desk. The friend said she did not know what was going on, because the man said he was free. The three friends did not want to hurt one another but they know how wonderful this man could be. The friends hug and cry and go to confront the man, whom they find with another woman. The women cry and comfort each other like sisters.