Dance We Do

Ntozake Shange (1948–2018) was a renowned poet, novelist, playwright, and performer, best known for her Broadway-produced and Obie Award–winning choreopoem for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf. She wrote numerous works of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, including If I Can Cook/You Know God Can, Wild Beauty, and Sassafras, Cypress & Indigo.

Alexis Pauline Gumbs (Foreword) is the literary advisor to the Ntozake Shange Revocable Trust. She is the author of M Archive: After the End of the World and Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity and is the co-editor of Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines. She is the founder of Brilliance Remastered, an organization that supports underrepresented scholars, artists, and organizers. Alexis has received numerous awards and recognitions such as the Advocate Magazine’s 40 under 40 and Colorlines’s 10 LGBTQ Leaders Transforming the South. Connect with her at alexispauline.com..

Reneé L. Charlow (Afterword) was the personal assistant to Ntozake Shange from 2014 to 2018. She is an actor, director, writer, and Theatre professor. She served as associate producer and assistant director for the production of Shange’s Lost in Language and Sound at Karamu House, Cleveland, OH, and directed for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf at Virginia Commonwealth University and Bowie State University. Keep in touch with Renee at mycreativespirit.net.

Outlive: Dance and the Eternal Life of Ntozake Shange
Foreword by Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Introduction

Dance in My Life

Fred Benjamin

Raymond Sawyer

Dianne McIntyre

Mickey Davidson

Halifu Osumare

Ed Mock

An Interview with Dyane Harvey

Eleo Pomare

Otis Sallid

An Interview with Camille A. Brown

An Interview with Davalois Fearon

Afterword by Reneé L. Charlow

Biographies of Dancers and Choreographers
by Mickey Davidson

Glossary
by Mickey Davidson, Dianne McIntyre, and Halifu Osumare

A Note from the Ntozake Shange Revocable Trust

Photo Credits

Notes