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Ntozake Shange

*1948 US, Trenton, New Jersey

A.k.a. Ntozake Shange, née Paulette Williams

Ntozake Shange (born October 18, 1948 – died October 27, 2018) was an American playwright, and poet. She was born into an upper middle-class African-American family. Her father was an Air Force surgeon and her mother a psychiatric social worker. Cultural icons like Dizzie Gillepsie, Miles Davis and W.E.B. DuBois were regular guests in the Williams home. A self-proclaimed black feminist, much of the content of her work addresses issues relating to race and feminism. Shange is perhaps most famous for her award-winning play 'For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf' (1975), a unique blend of poetry, music, dance and drama called a “choreopoem,” Shange attended Barnard College and UCLA, earning both a bachelors and master degree in American Studies. College years were difficult, however, and frustrated and hurt after separating from her first husband, she attempted suicide several times before focusing her rage against the limitations society imposes on black women. While earning a master’s degree, she reaffirmed her personal strength based on a self-determined identity and took her African name, which means “she who comes with her own things” and she “who walks like a lion.” She sustained a triple career as an educator, a performer/director, and a writer whose work drew heavily on her experiences of being a black female in America.

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