"Somebody almost walked off wid alla my stuff not my poems or a dance I gave up in the street but somebody almost walked off wid alla my stuff."
-Ntozake Shange
Did Shange know that when she wrote this phrase of one of the most critically aclaimed poems which became part of her award winning Choreo-Drama, that she'd be speaking to a generation struggling with so much "stuff"? Did she foresee the impact that her work would have on women and men alike?
In 1975 Ntozake Shange produced her amazing play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf" which was a choregoraphed dramatization of the domestic, social, emotional and psychologicial issues that have bound women of color across america to that not-so-proverbial ball and chain. As ladies of different shapes and sizes took color and painted the stage with their voices of reality, their movement of pain and sensuality and the ground breaking heartache of stories that no single person could have imagined to be captured on one stage, "For Colored Girls..." became not just a play but a movement, a mantra and most importantly a stand against the pain.
Tyler Perry has taken Shange's work and has recreated the stories to reach yet another generation of women and the mass of people everywhere who can relate. With Actresses like Loretta Devine, Phylicia Rashaad, Whoopie Goldberg, Anika Noni Rose & Thandie Newton just to name a few, this movie adaptation is more than exceptional. Tyler Perry has taken these stories, poems and lives of women that you can find yourself in at any point in time and has painted a picture filled with heart shattering, breath stealing and jaw dropping drama.
As the story of 8 women with personal struggles and devotion to staying true to who they are as colored women unravel in this tantilizing epic, you find yourself being drawn in by the simple things that remind you of your own life. You think about the people that have tried to "Steal yo stuff" and how you fight like hell to get it back, you're grateful for the ones that have told you, "You can't stay here, you've got to get up and move on. How much responsibility you take is on you, but you gon have to take some." And you're crippled by the knowledge of knowing that had it not been for the grace of God you would be lost in a sea of confusion and deception.
I give this movie an astounding two thumbs up!!!!!!!!! It is drama that the big screen has needed for some time now and is so masterly performed that it's hard to walk out of the theatre without sore cheeks from laughing, red eyes from crying and the beating heart of someone who just got hit with a ton of bricks called reality. Definitley THEE premiere movie of the year. You'll want it in your library I'm sure!!!!
For more information on Domestic Abuse among women & Rape related cases please visit Domestic Abuse Center and The Rape Crisis Center. No one deserves to be abused. If you or someone you know is being abused physically, verbally, sexually, emotionally or mentally please call the proper facilities in your local neighborhood and help to STOP the violence in today's communities. Remember that EVERY life is worth saving, do your part by stopping the cycle.
~Till next blog I'm Danyol Jaye with The Jaye Spot~
