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| Image Ownership: Public Domain |
The recent
passing of the feminist playwright, Ntozake Shange, has expanded my
appreciation for artists who extend their voice to the most creative realm,
fearlessly expressing truth through art and surviving waves of criticism that
usually shadows great work conceived ahead of its time.
Even today –
while there are many women who applauded Shange’s 1976 “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered …,” Obie Award-winning
play, contrasted to the majority of critics having been men at that time – a
number of millennials did not embrace the artistry and feminist commentary that
the film conveyed when adapted by Tyler Perry eight years ago, which, in my opinion
was his best art to date.
The positive
reception from the twentysomething generation of the 70s in contrast to the
indifference from those millennials of the 21st century brings attention
to the generational mind shifts that have developed over three decades.
Looking at
the social traumas addressed by Shange’s characters, and mirrored in Perry’s
film are still experiences realized by today’s females, but, as I observed, the
alarming indifference was as if some could not relate to the characters’
experiences, which was possibly due to the inability to bear the gravity of
these experiences as visualized on film, thus their affinity to relate were
numbed or blatantly negated in a non-conscious state.
As the Me
Too Movement has found its voice, we are in a haze of female empowerment, and misogynistic
conditioning that have some women thinking they are not women unless they can successfully compete in providing male pleasure at the expense of their souls.
In the
voices of her characters, Shange arrested this concept, and should always be
remembered for creating her masterwork in her twenties. I believe "For Colored Girls ...," saved her life in having the courage to address various female realities and their ill
encounters, leaving such women with no place to turn but within to find their esteem and embrace the tenets of self-love and respect.