NAPPY EDGES

by Ntozake Shange ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 27, 1978

The author of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf has produced an energetic, provocative book of poetry. Using the work as a vehicle for confronting life, Shange provides a sense of immediate contact with a volatile and expressive set of emotions. In ""Night Letter #3: ""the telephone company is harassin me in my/ sleep everybody keeps callin/ 'hello hello' old lovers I never want to see/ lovers i'm dyin to meet. . . ."" The music is relentlessly rhythmic, and insistent to the point where the poems seem to be losing power by not being read aloud: ""every 3 minutes a woman is beaten/ every five minutes a/ woman is raped/ every ten minutes/ a lil girl is molested/ yet i rode the subway today. . . ."" Shange's concerns remain inseparably political and personal, her music distinctive, her method of expression emotional and tempered with enough objectivity to avoid rhetoric. A fine show,

Pub Date: Sept. 27, 1978

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1978

Categories: NONFICTION