I am gonna write poems til I die and when I have gotten outta this body I am gonna hang round in the wind and knock over everybody who got their feet on the ground.

In the late 1960s, Ntozake Shange was a student at Barnard College discovering her budding talent as a writer, publishing in her school’s literary journal, and finding her unique voice. By the time of her death in 2018, she had scorched blazing trails across countless pages and stages, redefining genre and form as we know them, each verse, dance, and song a love letter to Black women and girls, and the community at large.

In Sing A Black Girl’s Song, we meet the young Shange, learn the moments that inspired for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, travel with an eclectic family of musicians, and sit on “The Couch” opposite Shange’s therapist. We read, in their original form, the literary rebel’s politically charged verses from the Black Arts Movement era alongside her signature tender rhythm and cadence that capture the minutia and nuance of Black life.

This new posthumous collection, including never-before-seen unpublished essays, plays, and poems, is a long-lasting gift from this seminal Black feminist writer, one of the fiercest and most highly celebrated artists of our time.

EDITED BY IMANI PERRY