Ntozake Shange

Ntozake Shange (born Paulette Williams, born October 18, 1948 in Trenton, New Jersey) is an American poet, playwright, dancer, actress, musician and director, famous for its influenced by feminism works as the play For Colored Girls Who have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow is Enuf has won several awards and the 1981 Three Pieces for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for poetry awarded.

Life

The daughter of a surgeon and a social worker in a psychiatric hospital studied post-school American Studies at Barnard College and graduated in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA American Studies ) from. A subsequent post-graduate studies in American Studies at the University of Southern California, she finished 1973 with a Master of Arts (MA American Studies ) and studied by the way also music and dance. Already during her studies she took in 1971 derived from the isiZulu name Ntozake Shange at the " The one who comes with her own things" ( Ntozake ) and " One that runs like a lion " ( Shange ) means.

After completion of the Bachelor studies she was a teacher in 1972 for English language, creative writing and drama and taught first at Trenton State College, then from 1973 to 1975 at the California State College at Sonoma in 1975 and briefly at the City College of New York. After she was only a teacher at Medgar Evers Community College and at Douglass College, before 1978 lecturer at Rutgers University was.

During this time she also worked as an actress and not only appeared in theaters in California and New York City, but also in television shows such as Straight Talk (1976) Sunday (1977 ), Black Journal ( 1977) and An Evening with Diana Ross ( 1977), for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. In addition, she began her writing career and was the first major success with their stage play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf, for which she received the 1977 Obie Award, among others. Along with their female companions generation Alice Walker, Toni Morrison and Toni Cade Bambara she reached in the 1970s, first for African-American authors a recognized place in the U.S. literature.

In 1979, she staged as a director also various pieces on the New York Shakespeare Festival as The Mighty Gents and Tribute to Sojourner Truth. In 1980 she was honored with another Obie Award for an adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children. For the book of poems Three Pieces, she received the 1981 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry and was also nominated for a Grammy Award and a Tony Award nomination. To provide financial support for their literary work, she also received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1981 and a further grant from the National Endowment for the Arts ( NEA). In 1983, Shange lecturer at Rice University.

In addition to their own releases her short stories, articles and poems have appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines including The New York Times and TV Guide, as well as in anthologies such as The Pushcart Press II (1977 ), Califia: The California Poetry ( 1979) and Anthology of Third World Women Writers (1980).

In 1994 she was awarded the Humanitas Prize for the screenplay for the short film Whitewash and also won as a narrator in the documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown the Audience Award at the Austin Film Festival.

With its non-traditional and unconventional style, she coined the works of younger African-American authors such as Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan - Lori Parks.

Publications

Dramas

Novels and books of poetry

  • Sassafrass: A Novella (1977 )
  • Nappy Edges ( poems, 1978)
  • Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo: A Novel (novel, 1982)
  • Melissa & Smith: A Story (1983 )
  • A Daughter's Geography: Poetry ( 1983)
  • Matrilineal Poems (1983 )
  • See No Evil: Prefaces, Essays, and Accounts, 1976-1983 (1984 )
  • Betsy Brown (novel, 1985).
  • Black Sisters, original title Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo: A Novel, 1984, ISBN 3-499-15344-0
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