#Choreopoem

[kunthug]

glass cock’s monologues (excerpt 4rm the anarchy of coloured transies.) thinking with the anarchy of coloured girls assembled in a riotous manner by saidiya hartman.

{read here}

[straightplayshowdown]

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: The show examines the complexities of the marriage of a middle-aged couple, Martha and George. Late one evening, after a university faculty party, they receive an unwitting younger couple, Nick and Honey, as guests, and draw them into their bitter and frustrated relationship.

for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf: The play follows seven nameless woman through a world of racism, oppression, and sexism. These women of color are named after the colors of the rainbow: Lady in Red, Lady in Blue, Lady in Purple, Lady in Yellow, Lady in Brown, Lady in Green, and Lady in Orange. They tell their stories and the stories of other women they know through poetry, music, and dance. It is a piece that flows effortlessly from one story into the next, never really taking a moment to breathe. The women often help each other tell their stories by acting as a chorus or stepping into the shoes of another character.

Propaganda under the cut!

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?:

the only play ive read that really made me feel anything tbh. the tension all throughout it. the ending!!! the confusion and the sudden realisation.... the reality & illusion thing. Aughhhh

It's like eavesdropping on a couple fighting at a restaurant, but you're in their living room and they also invited over people they met for the first time that night 

watching this feels like you've been invited to a dinner party and the couple hosting start bickering and you're feeling kind of awkward and then they start going straight for each other's metaphorical throats and acting like it's a game. every time you try to speak up or say "oh wow it's late we should be going" they make another excuse or they turn it on you. such chaos, such fun

it's straight people in a very toxic relationship who has out their drama in front of everyone and also it was written by a gay man and it is very funny

for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf: 

A groundbreaking play/choreopoem about the lives of black women

[hotwheelsandhighheels]

Picked this up today!

Studying Ms. Shange’s work as she is the pioneer of the choreopoem

I’ve been reading an anthology of her work and my favorite pieces seem to be from Nappy Edges, a Daughter’s Geography, & For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow is Enuf

I’ve also been watching interviews of Ms. Shange and how she describes the joy of movement and music and creation — I love joy. I want to live and love right here forever

[sunfoxfic]

The use of slashes throughout this poem, though not necessarily throughout the entire choreopoem, carry an interesting weight. In poetry, slashes carry a particular connotation of being a break between lines—that’s how I’ve been using them throughout this analysis. Even when used internally within a line in the poem itself, slashes don’t typically carry the same connotation you might see elsewhere, where they represent “either/or.”

to be fair it's 11 pm but I'm an English major specifically because this thing I just wrote is like the PEAK of humor to me

[emeraldskulblaka]

Got any good book recommendations?

Unfortunately, I don't read a lot, and if I read, it's for uni. But these five I really enjoyed:

Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, Good Omens

Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

Susanna Clarke, Piranesi

Luis Valdez, Zoot Suit (play)

Ntozake Shange, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf (choreopoem)

If you're looking for easy reading, the first two are the best choices. There's a little of the fantastical mixed in. This element is featured in 3 as well, but the writing style here is more unconventional, and it's a diary entry-based novel.

4 & 5 are plays we read in class; you'll definitely have some critical reading to before and after. 4 is based on historical events and thematises police brutality and injustices/crimes committed against Chicanx Americans; 5 is unlike any play you've read before. It consists of vignettes that show snippets of African American experiences narrated by a small cast in changing roles.

[daysofsamdandtime]

Day 1

After a long day of travel to get here I made an early start for my first full day in London. I decided to walk down to my ‘shoe fitting’ appointment in Brixton, about an hour and a half walk… but after not exactly following a map for the first half hour I ended up going over London bridge and following the road down. The walk was a nice chance to stretch my legs and to remember that walking around the city, especially as people go to work, no one follows the walk on the right or left side of the footpath.

I arrived at the Duke + Dexter workshop and went upstairs with Chloe, explaining that I was wanting to try sizing as I was already quite decided I wanted to buy some. Luckily I was able to pick up a new card holder from them directly as shops didn’t have them yet, then a quick train up to Liberty’s and Selfridges to see what they had in stock.

A very happy purchase of expensive shoes later I ducked back to the hotel to drop them before the matinee of For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy - what an absolutely excellent first performance for my time here. (Despite the woman beside me confusing her seat - O4 with the seat next to be B5 - 5 mins into the first act when the late patron arrived) The performances were immediately moving and compelling. The piece was in the form of a Choreopoem, the five actors exploring the varied and complex relationship Black men have to identity, religion, relationships and many more aspects of life. The performances were nuanced and the actors portrayal of all of these topics were deeply moving. With a simplistic scenic design - set in a support group in act 1 and on a multi level area for act two the actors created each individual narrative and worked as an ensemble to support each other through many tough retellings of experiences.

Machinal was a very different piece to end the first day. Based from the playwrights experience of the murder trial of Ruth Snyder in 1928 the style of the piece was different from this afternoon, affronting and a reasonably abrasive stylized piece exploring what would drive a woman to breaking point. The design was very effective, with a small performance space with forced perspective and a raked stage and multiple doors on each side. The front of the stage held headings in a newsprint typeface which were hauled up to signify each ‘act’ of the piece, also assumedly reflecting the playwrights journalistic background and the media interest in the trial. I found this piece a lot harder to connect with due to the acting style of the piece.

[citylifeorg]

The Apollo Presents Two Theatrical Works in Development Salt City & DREAM, GIRL!, as Part of its Residency Program, The Apollo Salon Series

Saturday, April 8 and Saturday, April 29 Featuring new work by playwright Lisa Rosetta Strum, poet jessica Care moore, and director Aku Kadogo The Apollo presents two theatrical works in development Salt City & DREAM, GIRL!, as part of its residency program, The Apollo Salon Series. On Saturday, April 8, a new techno choreopoem by esteemed poet and writer jessica Care moore, award-winning…

[boid0ll]

wip. is this a choreopoem or a single ?

[sistazai]

2012. Opening performance for an Arts In Action Documentary screening. Representing “Stillwaters Storytelling Collective.” Logo: @boacampbell Photographer: @amucc . . It took a whole Black Women’s storytelling collective to bring me to the stage, solo. A this time, there were not a lot of us Black poets on the Melbourne Spoken Word scene. Slam poetry was going through a revival. It was so exciting to be amongst it and also kinda scary … building a plane while you fly it. . . Stillwaters is where I cut my teeth. Blending performance art with community building and cultural development. We performed a choreopoem at the opening night of The Emerging Writers Festival. We were involved with the Light In Winter Festival, celebrating the winter solstice at Federation Square. We were at La Mama, bringing poetry into theatre. So much groundbreaking and innovative work. So greatful for that time. I’ll see if I can dig up some more photos. . . I took a leap from law to poetry. Doors opened. . . Create a beautiful day, my loves 🖤 https://www.instagram.com/p/Ckc9aP-Bh9a/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[kevintumbles]

Theatre Review: ‘Framing My America’ at Strand Theater Company

“The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal”.– Aristotle “Why you wanna fly, Blackbird? You ain’t never gonna fly”.– Nina Simone A world premiere choreopoem, written and directed by Tracy “Symphony” Hall, hits the Strand Theater stage this month. “Framing My America” is a thought-provoking and engaging assemblage of short […] See original article at: https://mdtheatreguide.com/2022/10/theatre-review-framing-my-america-at-strand-theater-company/

[kunthug]

the silent machinery of bloom

we broke in the middle so often we thought we’d evolve past hearts...

— alexis pauline gumbs.

it is here, in the recess of our heart

(beating)

the silent machinery of bloom

love inwards, tulle tooled

& pearlescent—something exceedingly holy we fill for the absence of god the father

the son, the spirit.

seeing how seeds must first rot,

do you understand what now blooms from your own bloody breaks?

whether it’s true

that the body is more resilient than steel, more mutable than gold, we do not know. we

were the flame & sometimes the forge. a daily conceiving in

and by reason of peculiar living.

            when day after day broke our body into too weighted marshlands, we opened candied exits in the

powdery (vanilla) grammar of night.

[straightplayshowdown]

for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf: The play follows seven nameless woman through a world of racism, oppression, and sexism. These women of color are named after the colors of the rainbow: Lady in Red, Lady in Blue, Lady in Purple, Lady in Yellow, Lady in Brown, Lady in Green, and Lady in Orange. They tell their stories and the stories of other women they know through poetry, music, and dance. It is a piece that flows effortlessly from one story into the next, never really taking a moment to breathe. The women often help each other tell their stories by acting as a chorus or stepping into the shoes of another character.

Gruesome Playground Injuries: It’s not your typical love story: Doug and Kayleen meet at the nurse’s office in their elementary school; she’s got a painful stomach ache, and he’s all banged up from a running dive off the roof of the school. Over the next thirty years, these scar-crossed lovers meet again and again, brought together by injury, heartbreak, and their own self-destructive tendencies. 

Propaganda under the cut!

for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf: 

A groundbreaking play/choreopoem about the lives of black women

Gruesome Playground Injuries:

two people but they end up only meeting/talking when they're injured and it's very dramatic and cool and they both need so much therapy and also allows for fun stage makeup 

[hotwheelsandhighheels]

This weekend I read through three poetry books and continued research for my choreopoem project. It’s insane how much there is left to learn

[feral-ballad]

Ntozake Shange, from For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf

[Text ID: “i found god in myself / & i loved her/ i loved her fiercely”]

[curlyhairedbibliophile]

#DecolonizeDecember | Day 17: A book about BIPOC Resilience

somebody / anybody sing a black girl's song bring her out to know herself to know you but sing 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 she's half-notes scattered without rhythm / no tune sing her sighs sing the song of her possibilities sing a righteous gospel let her be born let her be born & handled warmly

[dizzylavender]

FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE/ WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF by Ntozake Shange