Thursday, July 1, 2010

Throwback Thursday: Sassafrass, Cypress and Indigo by Ntozake Shange

Throwback Thursday, an event hosted by Jenny over at Take Me Away Reading, is a new meme I'll be featuring at least once a month  It's the time to recognize those older books… an older book you’ve always wanted to read, or one that you have read and love; maybe one from your childhood; or review an older book -- how about even a classic!


Synopsis:  Ntokaze Shange's Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo is the story of three "colored girls," three sisters and their mama from Charleston, South Carolina: Sassafrass, the oldest, a poet and a weaver like her mother, gone north to college, living with other artists in Los Angeles and trying to weave a life out of her work, her man, her memories and dreams; Cypress, the dancer, who leaves home to find new ways of moving and easing the contractions of her soul; Indigo, the youngest, still a child of Charleston - "too much of the south in her" - who lives in poetry, can talk to her dolls, and has a great gift of seeing the obvious magic of the world.

While the author is best known for her great choreopoem, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/when the Rainbow is Enuf, I've always been a fan of hers because of Sassafrass...

Originally published: 1982

3 comments :

  1. I've added this to my wish list. She has a new book coming out in September called Some Sing Some Cry.

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  2. Really? I had no idea she was still writing. Let me go do an early request from the library. Thanks!

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  3. This is the book every Black female artist should read. It really goes into ways of living as an artist.

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