For colored girls who have considered suicide, when the rainbow is enuf
by Ntozake Shange · 1975
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4.3/5
Ntozake Shange's groundbreaking choreopoem fuses poetry, drama, and dance to tell the accumulated stories of seven women navigating racism, sexism, and survival. A formal innovation that endures precisely because it refuses consolation.
Ntozake Shange's choreopoem remains a formal breakthrough precisely because it refuses the consolations of narrative closure.
For colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf is a work of genuine innovation—not merely in its hybrid form, but in its refusal to subordinate poetry to plot or character arc. Fifty years after its premiere, it endures not because it solved the problems it names, but because it named them with a formal precision that still feels urgent. This is essential reading, though not always comfortable reading.
Shange's invention of the choreopoem—a term she coined to describe the marriage of poetry, music, movement, and dramatic utterance—was born from necessity rather than aestheticism. The seven unnamed women, identified only by their rainbow colors, speak in lowercase African-American Vernacular English, a linguistic choice that was radical in 1975 and remains politically significant. What matters here is not the illusion of individual psychology but the accumulation of testimony; each monologue is both particular and archetypal, a woman's story and every woman's story. The work's power lies in this deliberate refusal of psychological depth in favor of what we might call testimonial breadth.
The poems move through a landscape of seduction, abandonment, violence, and transcendence with an almost liturgical structure. Shange covers enormous thematic ground—sexual exploitation, motherhood, racism, desire, solidarity—in eighty-six pages, and the compression serves the work rather than diminishing it. The language moves between the colloquial and the incantatory; a line about a lover becomes a meditation on worth becomes a cry of survival. This tonal range is not accidental; it is the formal expression of what Shange calls the "metaphysical dilemma" of being a colored girl in America.
The work's greatest achievement is its insistence on complexity without redemption. These women do not transcend their circumstances through revelation or romantic fulfillment; they endure, they recognize each other, and in that recognition—in the rainbow itself—they find not resolution but continuity. The final movement toward collective affirmation is earned precisely because it does not erase the preceding pain. This refusal of false hope is what distinguishes the work from much well-intentioned art about suffering.
Yet here is where the choreopoem reveals its limitations: the very formlessness that makes it innovative on stage becomes, in the published text, somewhat attenuated on the page. Without the bodies of dancers, without the music and visual composition, the work depends entirely on the reader's imaginative reconstruction of its theatrical scaffolding. Some poems land with devastating force in isolation; others seem to require their choreographic counterpart to achieve their full resonance. The published version is not incomplete, but it is necessarily diminished—a score without its orchestra, waiting for performance to restore what the page cannot fully contain.
For colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf remains a cornerstone text because it expanded what a poem could do and what a stage could say. It speaks to Black women with an specificity that does not diminish its universal recognition of pain and survival. Readers coming to it now will find a work that has not dated because it was never merely topical; it was always formal, always reaching toward something larger than the moment of its making. It demands to be encountered—whether on stage, on the page, or in the collective memory of those who have made it their own.
Key Takeaways
- Formal innovation
- Collective testimony
- Refusal of redemption
Summary
- A hybrid choreopoem combining poetry, drama, music, and dance to tell the stories of seven unnamed women identified only by rainbow colors.
- Written in lowercase African-American Vernacular English, the work traces experiences of sexual exploitation, motherhood, racism, and survival.
- Formally innovative for its refusal of narrative closure and psychological depth in favor of accumulated testimony and collective affirmation.
- The work achieves power through tonal range—moving between colloquial speech and incantatory language, seduction and transcendence.
- Shange deliberately avoids false redemption; the women endure and recognize each other rather than achieving individual transcendence.
- On the page, the work is necessarily diminished without its choreographic and musical dimensions, though the poetry remains potent.
- Remains urgent fifty years after publication because it is formally radical, not merely topical or representative.
- Essential reading for understanding contemporary American literature and the possibilities of hybrid form, though performance reveals dimensions the page cannot fully contain.
Chapter Guide
- Chapter 1: dark phrases
- Seven women, identified by the colors of the rainbow, introduce themselves and their individual struggles, setting the stage for their shared journey of self-discovery and resilience. This opening poem establishes the collection's unique voice and the women's collective identity.
- Chapter 2: somebody almost walked off wid alla my stuff
- Lady in Red recounts a relationship where she felt her identity was being consumed, highlighting the struggle to maintain one's sense of self in the face of romantic entanglements. It's a poignant exploration of self-worth and reclaiming personal sovereignty.
- Chapter 3: toussaint
- Lady in Brown shares a story of a transformative sexual encounter, using vivid imagery to convey both physical sensation and emotional liberation. This piece celebrates the power of female sexuality and agency.
- Chapter 4: no assistance
- Lady in Blue describes the crushing weight of a relationship where her partner's dreams overshadowed her own, leading to a profound sense of isolation and despair. It's a stark portrayal of emotional neglect and unfulfilled potential.
- Chapter 5: sechita
- Lady in Yellow narrates the story of Sechita, a young girl whose innocence is tragically lost to sexual exploitation, symbolizing the vulnerability of black girls and women. This choreopoem confronts systemic violence and its lasting impact.
Read the full review at https://reviewerinsight.com/book/69ed55a6f2f1713bdeb31c18/for-colored-girls-who-have-considered-suicide-when-the-rainbow-is-enuf