The finale of her 1976 coreopoem “for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf,” performed by the whole cast. Music by Diana Wharton.

Originally produced at The Public’s New York Shakespeare Theatre Festival, it later transferred to Broadway’s Booth Theatre where it ran 742 performances.

Cast: Trazana Beverley (Lady in Red), Laurie Carlos (Lady in Blue), Risë Collins (Lady in Purple), Aku Kadogo (Lady in Yellow), Janet League (Lady in Brown), Paula Moss (Lady in Green) and Ntozake Shange (Lady in Orange)

Excerpted from the Buddha Records Original Broadway Cast Recording LP, ripped by me.

Photo credit: Martha Swope

Ntozake Shange (October 18, 1948 – October 27, 2018) was an American playwright and poet. As a Black feminist, she addressed issues relating to race and Black power in much of her work. She is best known for her Obie Award-winning play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf. She also penned novels including Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo (1982), Liliane (1994), and Betsey Brown (1985), about an African-American girl runaway from home. Among Shange’s honors and awards were fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Fund, and a Pushcart Prize. In April 2016, Barnard College announced it had acquired Shange’s archive.