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Ntozake Shange

Biography

Ntozake Shange

Ntozake Shange (EN-toe-zok-ee SHON-gay) was born in Trenton, New Jersey, and later moved to St. Louis, where her family counted Miles Davis, Ike and Tina Turner, Dizzy Gillespie, and W.E.B. DuBois among their friends. During her teenage years, Shange was among the first to integrate the schools of St. Louis. She went on to graduate from Barnard College and the University of Southern California, and has taught and lectured at schools and universities across the county. She now lives in Philadelphia.

Shange is the author of the plays for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf, which won an Obie award and a Tony award nomination, and Mother Courage and Her Children, which also won an Obie award; four volumes of poetry; and two other novels, Betsey Brown and Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo, both reprinted by Picador USA.

Ntozake Shange

Books by Ntozake Shange