Somebody, Sing a Black Girl’s Song
Notes from America with Kai Wright
WNYC Studios
4.4 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 16 May 2022
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
An intergenerational meditation on Ntozake Shange’s iconic Broadway play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf. First, host Kai Wright and producer speak with the director and choreographer of the current Broadway Revival, Camille A. Brown. Then, performers Trazana Beverley, Aku Kadogo, and Carol Maillard reminisce on the original production and with the show's legendary creator, Ntozake Shange.
Companion listening for this episode:
Lynn Nottage: Unexpected Optimist (1/3/2022)
Playwright Lynn Nottage breaks down her remarkable career and shares how, as an optimist at heart, she finds the light and resilience in unexpected stories.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, Francina. |
| 0:04.0 | Hi. |
| 0:05.0 | Thank you for taking the time. |
| 0:07.0 | We asked you to recite the opening poem from For Color Girls, but I wouldn't ask, what |
| 0:13.0 | was your first encounter with the show? |
| 0:15.0 | When I went to college, I went to the illustrious Marcus State University in Baltimore, Maryland. |
| 0:22.0 | I was cast in the production of For Color Girls by Ms. Shazana Beverly. |
| 0:28.0 | She was my director, and she also played in the original For Color Girls on Broadway. |
| 0:34.0 | I mean, it was magical. |
| 0:35.0 | It was just a story about black women, that was universal, that needed to be told. |
| 0:41.0 | And that's the story of our existence, right? |
| 0:44.0 | Both delicate and complex and beautiful, and she really made us take the time to do the work, |
| 0:54.0 | to find out why did you feel me to hear and sing a black girl song. |
| 1:01.0 | Welcome to the show. |
| 1:03.0 | I'm Kai Wright, and tonight we are celebrating a remarkable piece of art that has been singing a black girl song for nearly 50 years. |
| 1:11.0 | For colored girls who have considered suicide, when the rainbow is enough, is a chorio poem. |
| 1:17.0 | That's what In Tozaki Shange called her groundbreaking work when she began performing it at a bar outside of Berkeley, California. |
| 1:24.0 | It made its stage debut as an ensemble piece in Lower Manhattan in 1975, and on its journey from that debut, |
| 1:31.0 | through to its current Tony-nominated Broadway revival, this show has touched so many lives, |
| 1:38.0 | including that of a young Francina Smith at Morgan State University. |
| 1:42.0 | So, to start our own journey tonight, here is Francina reading the opening poem to four colored girls. |
| 1:49.0 | It's called Dark Frazes. |
... |
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