“I’m so touched and so surprised and so grateful,” said legendary author, poet, writer and performer Ntozake Shange. “St. Louis is such an important part of my development and appreciation of the world.”
She will return to be received with loving arms by way of a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame on the morning of Friday, Sept. 14 and a special performance on Saturday, Sept. 15 at the Nu-Art Gallery and Studio entitled “Dream Carriers.”
She spent a significant segment of her formative years living in the historic Ville neighborhood, but the mutual exchange of support and appreciation has continued long since she left the city at the cusp of adolescence.
“Presenting her with this star is a noble gesture,” said George Sams, director of Nu-Art. “She is an activist and an artist that has had an impact on the entire world.”
Born Paulette Williams, Shange lived in St. Louis on Windemere Place from 8 to 13 years of age. Her experiences in St. Louis infuse her work, especially the novels Betsey Brown (1985) and Liliane: Resurrection of the Daughter (1994).
“Ntozake continues to make a difference – wherever she is,” Sams said.
“Our goal is to help St. Louis realize that they have some legends in the world who are making a difference in the world. This show is called ‘Dream Carriers’ because writers embellish people’s dreams – their own and others’.”
A global village of artists has maintained a continuum of support for her and her work since For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf became the black woman’s soundtrack for Women’s Liberation almost 40 years ago.
“I was an original member of the cast when we started out in San Francisco back in the early 1970s,” Sams said. “We were a duo and would take ‘For Colored Girls’ to these different venues and get $50 here and $75 there. And the amount of money we’d get would determine the size of the cast.”
It’s hard to even imagine those lean days now that the most recent incarnation of Shange’s iconic choreopoem was presented in theatres nationwide in 2010 with a multi-million dollar budget and an all-star cast that included Phylicia Rashad and Janet Jackson, thanks to Hollywood and Tyler Perry.
“I’m still getting used to the idea it’s an overwhelming phenomenon,” Shange says of For Colored Girls… It makes me feel so humble and amazed that my experiences and words could mean so much to others.”
Sooner than later, For Colored Girls… would transcend beyond the audience the play’s title suggests. It would ultimately speak for all girls and women – female artists in particular.
As Shange’s most private of journals became a stage production that transformed audiences, women performers and creative spirits stood boldly and claimed the right to breathe the brutal truth into their bodies of work. She gave birth to a new sense of honesty – and freedom – with respect to women artists as they drew inspiration from the courageous transparency of For Colored Girls…
Now a standard of the American stage, the 1976-77 Broadway hit has won a number of awards, including the Obie Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, and the AUDELCO Award. It was published in book form in 1977. Since then, Shange has written a number of successful plays, including an adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children (1980).
Her body of work includes more than 15 plays, 18 books of poetry, six novels, five children’s books, and three books of essays.
Her most recent works include the 2010 novel Some Sing, Some Cry and last year’s critically acclaimed book of essays entitled Lost in Language and Sound.
“It’s going to be so good to be back,” Shange said. “I just hope that I can continue to make St. Louis proud of me.”
The St. Louis Walk of Fame will hold the induction ceremony for Ntozake
Shange on Friday, September 14. The ceremony will take place at
6160 Delmar, located in the City of St. Louis part of The Loop. For more information, visit http://www.stlouiswalkoffame.org/ceremony/
Nu-Art’s presentation of Ntozake Shange will take place on Saturday, Sept. 15, from 3-6 p.m. at Nu-Art Gallery and Studios, 2936 Locust Street, St. Louis, MO 63103. For more information, visit http://www.thenu-artseries.org/ or call (314) 535-6500.
