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"we cd even have em over for dinner & get raped in our own houses by invitation a friend. ” We Live As Strangers Ms. Shange speaks personally, outside the play of this “stranger’s mentality,” which makes “the rape of others,” whether physical or symbolic, an ever-present possi bility. She tells, for example, of celebrating a birthday and of asking a male friend to share in its joy with her. He froze. For him —sadly characteristic as he was of the alienation, impersonality and hence exploi tativeness of our times —“doing some thing” was an aspect of life with which he was familiar. But simply to feel, to share, and to engage in loving and carefree give and-take was frightening. So he turned away in fear... and froze. The “stranger syndrome,” or set ol symptoms, reveals more than the “user mentality”; it discloses also the horrendous ly devastated reaction of those who sense that they are misused. It is the “lady in red” who, once more, regarding the sense of alienation and indifferent user-ship, recites some of Shange’s favorite lines. She speaks of a woman who wears “orange butterflies & aqua sequins.” Next to Sechita, the figure here is in Shange’s mind most deeply revealing of the incoherent, unanchored and often antagonistic life in which we find ourselves today. “Passion Flower’’ The “lady in red” speaks of the woman who was “the passion flower of southwest los angeles” and who wore “orange butter flies and aqua sequins”: "... she didn’t let on she knew from behind her waist was aching to be held... she wanted to be a memory a wound to every man arrogant enough to want her. ” The “lady in red” continues her descrip tion of this “passion flower” by noting that after she had shared her charms and then engaged in her cleansing and cere monial ablutions, she became defiantly her old “colored” self: “... she had been so divine devastatingly bizarre the way her mouth fit round & now she stood a reglar colored girl fulla the same malice livid indifference as a sistah worn out from supportin a wd be hornplayer or waitin by the window... " How strange to even ourselves are black women,...and are we all! Raw Anger To Ms. Shange, it is the realization of “a righteous gospel” which will free black women—and so also all of us as we seek for reality—from life’s worst enchaining cir cumstances, from the fetters which we call anger. Ms. Shange holds that the intense anger in all women is largely unrecognized and undealt with in our world today. We raise girls to not want to achieve, to not want to make decisions, to not want to be indepen dent. That kind of powerlessness, so Shange notes, breeds anger: “All women, whether black or white, are exceedingly . angry. This makes us less than our true selves.” How does one get at this anger? Shange suggests three ways. “Essentially,” she says, “we must bring the anger out into the open. In this respect, my book and show speak to some women by an open display of raw anger and revenge.” Another approach is to have facilities for women to deal with their concerns, with support systems for women who need to grow into far greater independence and integrity. Ms. Shange tells of a woman who claimed that she could not meet her at the Moulin Rouge in Paris because the woman had never been out alone. Ms. Shange sees the dependent woman as having perhaps the most deep-seated anger, anger which will probably never be faced precisely because it is doubtless so deeply sup pressed. No woman, in Shange’s view, really wants to remain like a dependent child. A final approach to women’s anger which Shange notes is to stay away from some of them, especially those who are rigid and uptight. Os this group Shange says, “They make me nervous. They make me feel that could have happened to me.” The Lady and The Tramp In a forthcoming piece, sub-titled, “A Photograph—A Study In Cruelty,” Ms. Shange tells of two women who come from different social class backgrounds. One (who is thought of as a tramp) has sought to find herself and to be released from anger. The other (a black lawyer who has cemented herself in her work and status symbols) fears growth into freedom and reality. The woman lawyer is asked: “Don’t you want to be free? Don’t you want to feel? Don’t you want to be no longer afraid?” The answer of the lawyer is “No.” To the suggestion that she can stop being afraid, the lawyer adds revealingly: “There’s no place where I can’t be afraid.” Os such women, Ms. Shange explains: Their self-perception is much too limited. We have to continually try to re-assure them, until we’re tired. We’ve got to get them to see that there’s infinitely more to them than they imagine.” Beyond Imagining The problem...or the fact...of being black, according to Shange, represents “a metaphysical dilemma,” in that it relates to the essential nature of our being or our reality.” For black women, the “lady in yellow” speaks of this circumstance: “... bein alive & bein a woman & bein Have you given to Operation PUSH, OIC. SCLC. NAACPorlhe local Urban League this month? 1 « /* K K 1 jl* ptv {,c ft The MacMillan Company publication of Ms. Shange’s choreopoem, "for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf. ” colored is a metaphysical dilemma/i haven’t conquered yet /do you see the point my spirit is too ancient to understand the separation of soul and gender/my love is too delicate to have thrown back in my face... ” Here the “problem” of growth is put forward as the will to accept the tension between what is the immediate, on the one hand, and what is the ideal, on the other hand. An implicit assumption on Shange’s part is that life in its ideal form is meant to be orderly. In this sense, one would find that ultimately there is in fact no tension between “being a woman” and “being colored.” The missing ingredient which, when found, makes the ideal into a present fact for all of us, is described in Shange’s book and play as “strong,” “cool,” “movin,” and “pure.” It is symbolically: “a lay in on of hands the holiness of myself released. ” This is the “righteous gospel!” This is what lies beyond the most far-reaching imaginings of most of us in our altogether uptight world. This is what womanhood... and life for all of us...is about! We are divine! We are thus to live as those who have dominion, power and g10ry...; and so we are to strut and dance out our divin ity with every breath we take. The prophetic “lady in red” proclaims the release-filled words, singing out, as the play and book conclude: "i found god in myself & i loved her/i loved her fiercely. ” Ms. Shange’s play, “for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rain bow is enuf,” which has been released in book form by the MacMillan Publishing Company, is a classic document which might profitably be read and re-read for the “righteous gospel” of freedom and release it sets forth for all of us in our world today. New National BLA CK MONITOR - September. 1977 That Ms. Shange’s star will continue to rise is certain. What remains is for those of us who hear and read her precious, saving words to simply heed.. .and follow. MONITOR Microscope (Continued from page 4.) dared to assume, the possibility of racial conflict or conflagration on the African continent and beyond. Specifically, he has noted that a racial war is not beyond possibility in sub-Sahar an Africa. Then he suggests that (as in the case of American backlash and fears during the 1790’s over the Haitian revolution) right wing elements may stir flames of racial antagonism in the United States, leading white Americans to make “preven tive attacks” upon black Americans. Here again, Mr. Young’s thought is supported from outside black American circles. In a most remarkable new book, A Time To Be Human, Howard Griffin suggests in a poignantly beautiful docu ment how blacks and whites (largely due to the different worlds of information from the black press, on the one hand, and the white press, on the other hand) are at odds, even though the white majority does not consciously admit to the existence of either tension or any difference. This book is well worth reading, if one accepts the assumption offered by Mr. Young that racism abounds and potential or actual polarization may exist. * * * ... For those who may doubt the far reaching import of what Andrew Young has sought to symbolize for America as a whole and for blacks in particular, these courageous and forthright words of an editorial several months ago from the Chicago Defender should provide pause for reflection: “Throughout history men with clear vision and deep conviction have appeared on the scene heralding new gospels trying to rescue mankind from the quagmire of harmful social errors committed in the name of civilization. There is a new awakening among the people who are slowly, but surely discovering that Andrew Young is a re deemer of chaos unto order.” In the Scriptural scheme of redemption, the redeemer-figure becomes inevitably the Sacrificial Lamb of whom it is said: “Blessed is the one who comes.. .Hosan nah in the highest.” (Your questions or comments concerning the "Microscope" are encouraged. Please address: The Editor, Black Monitor, Suite 1108, 507 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017.) Remember: The Seventh Annual Congressional Black Caucus Dinner is on September 24th at the Washington Hilton, Washington, D.C. Page 9