Playwright, Novelist, Poet Ntozake Shange Dies At 70

By Yesha Callahan · October 27, 2018October 23, 2020

Ntozake Shange, the blueprint for so many young Black female writers, poets and playwrights, passed away Saturday morning at an assisted living home in Bowie, Maryland, her family announced on social media. She was 70. Her critically acclaimed choreopoem, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf, could be considered a bible for so many Black female writers. Shange’s family notified the public of her passing with a tweet on Saturday afternoon:

To our extended family and friends, it is with sorrow that we inform you that our loved one, Ntozake Shange, passed away peacefully in her sleep in the early morning of October 27, 2018. Memorial information / details will follow at a later date.
The family of Ntozake Shange
— Ntozake Shange (@NtozakeShange1) October 27, 2018

Born Paulette Williams in Trenton, New Jersey, but known to friends and family as just ‘Zake,’ Shange personified Black Girl Magic, even before the term was born. She was regal. When you were in her presence, not only did she make you feel like you were on the top of the world, but you knew you were in the presence of literary royalty. Many on Twitter have been sharing their thoughts about Shange, but no one’s stands out more than poet Bassey Ikpi’s tweets:

So much of what I wanted to do with my writing and my performance was in "for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf' and Sassafras, Cyprus & Indigo. It's corny to say but she did teach us how to sing a Black girl's song. She really did.

— bassey ikpi (@Basseyworld) October 27, 2018

When I first started performing my poetry, I used to recite "a nite with beau willie brown" too; I'd just slip it in there like it was mine because it was mine. It's how I paid homage to this woman who changed everything.
— bassey ikpi (@Basseyworld) October 27, 2018

And this idea of a choreopoem. My God.
As a dancer and a writer and a Black girl in a Black body with Black dreams and Black fears and Black hopes and no idea how to shape the world or the words…
she did that.
She was the blueprint.
She was the roadmap.
She was the light.
— bassey ikpi (@Basseyworld) October 27, 2018

They say, "don't meet your heroes" but I met mine and she was funny and kind and gracious and regal and regular and wonderful.

My heart hurts.
— bassey ikpi (@Basseyworld) October 27, 2018

The best way to honor her, for me, is to do what she told me to do: "keep writing, Bassey…"

So I'm going to go do that.
Ntozake Shange told me to and who am I to argue with an ancestor?
— bassey ikpi (@Basseyworld) October 27, 2018