Ntozake Shange's Choreo-Poetry: Celebration of an Authentic Form

The 20th Century was witness to a rise in African American Drama as it introduced many prominent figures such as Amiri Baraka, Ed Bullins and August Wilson. However, its distinctness lies in the flourishing of a female canon led by Alice Childress and Lorainne Hansberry in mid 1900's, which is continued today in the works of many contemporary dramatists such as Adrienne Kennedy and Ntozake Shange, who have taken on the task of giving voice to the two times suppressed black woman. Among these playwrights, Ntozake Shange has been the most strikingly original one since her search for identity is integrated into her writing in terms of both content and form. While she experiments on the smallest segments of her individual and collective self, her writing transcends over rules of language as well as genre. It does not suffice to say her writing reflects a search for identity as what she experiences is a quest for authenticity...