Exploring Pain and Resilience in For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf

Ntozake Shange’s choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuff utilizes, dance, sultry tones and mood, and sisterhood to empower the voices of unspoken stories Black women have trailed. The speakers are broken up by colors: The Ladies in Red, Purple, Brown, and a few others where each woman conveys a story that flows between an anecdote, to a conversation, and even reaching as far back to childhood memories with friendly gossip between sister-friends. In the midst of this, trauma is intertwined in the narrators’ tales, such as domestic violence, rape, and oversexualization of the Black woman’s body to show the highs and lows of what it means to be a Black woman in a society that devalues and dismiss their humanity. Ultimately, the voices come together in the end to symbolize how the only people who can truly understand Black women’s trauma are Black women. Despite the different walks of life, and the trauma-filled stories their bodies may hold, Black women can empathize with what it feels like to be a Black woman.

Upon reading this, I couldn’t help but consider two things: the act of suicide as a Black woman and why? The act of suicide and mental health are alluded to on several occasions in a poetic formula blended with artistic expression through the tales each woman conveys that discusses a situation that weighs on them and compounds. Stereotypical traits of Black women assisted in conveying the themes such as the modern day strong Black woman trope seen in the the Lady’s voices coming together to tell the tale of Crystal. Crystal suffered in silence through beatings from her PTSD-stricken veteran husband, who ultimately killed their children after her refusal to marry him (Shange 79). Themes of objectifying through oversexualization runs throughout the choreopoem of Black women being sought after for sexual exploits and then easily dismissed as seen in The Lady in Green’s tale of the exotic dancing goddess Sechita. Or, the sexually liberated jezebel of the Lady in Red’s tale who takes control over her lovers through rhinestone bedazzles and full-figured curves, then curbing the men after they get what they want:

& when she finished writin 

the account of her exploit in a diary

Embroidered with lilies & moonstones

She placed the rose behind her ear

& cried herself to sleep. (49) 

The jezebel is painted as a magical woman through the glow of her pressed rhinestones and flowers, and glitter, as if alluding to everything that glitters isn’t gold. She reflected a woman of confidence in her ethereal look, but once she washed it all away, and kicked the men from her home, what was left was a woman, a Black woman, whom men only sought after her beauty, whereas the humanity that lay behind the glittering-face. This dawning realization became a recurring truth she accepted as she tested many, and all proved her right, but even so, the reality still hurts in the loneliness of it all. Each story is told through the women in different colors to create this dichotomy of each woman representing a different path in life than the person who is on the same trail as them. While on this journey, there isn’t a consecutive sequence of one woman’s story from start to finish–moreso anecdotes or accounts of life as a Black woman that that Lady of color is telling.

“i found god in myself/ and i loved her/ i loved her fiercely”

In understanding this, it helped me to contextualize mental health of Black women and why we consider suicide when the paths we’re walking become too much. The opening poem was poignant and captivating at the same time because it echoed to many cries Black women face when asking if the world truly understands us, and if so, can you empathize to alleviate the burdens that add weight to our lives:

i can’t hear anythin

but maddening screams

& the soft strains of death

& you promised me. . .

somebody/ anybody

sing a black girl’s song

bring her out

to know herself

to know you

but bring her rhythms

carin/ struggle/ hard times

sing her song of life

she’s been dead so long

closed in silence so long

she doesn’t know the sound

of her own voice

her infinite beauty. (Shange 18)

This poem captured my attention because it discusses the trials of being a Black woman, whilst also echoing to her glory and beauty that also deserves to be seen. In this light, the Black woman is one-dimensional, and only the burdens weigh to be seen by the public eye. This sense of heaviness is the unspoken weight Black women carry about their mental health that they can’t seem to articulate to others, but ending it all can be the answer that has possibly crossed the minds of each Lady who articulated a story to ask the reader, what would you do in this situation? But, on the other hand this poem also begs to create dimensions to the Black woman to allow other parts of her humanity to shine so that her life can once again be revitalized. The closing lines of the poem iterates this ideology of life thereafter survival when all the women who eulogized Crystal’s story returned once again to speak in unison saying, “i found god in myself/ and i loved her/ i loved her fiercely” (87). 

Works Cited

Shange, Ntozake. For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuff. Scribner, 1975.