Her father, Paul T. Williams, was an Air Force surgeon, and her mother, Eloise Williams, was an educator and a psychiatric social worker. When she was 8, Shange's family moved to the racially segregated city of St. Louis. In 1971, having come to terms with her depression and alienation, Shange changed her name. Ntozakhe means she who has her own things (literally things that belong to her in Xhosa) and shange means he/she who walks/lives with lions (meaning the lion's Pride in Zulu).
Shange's college years were not all pleasant. She married during her first year in college, but the marriage did not last long. Depressed over her separation and with a strong sense of bitterness and alienation, Shange attempted suicide.
Essays
See No Evil: Prefaces, Essays & Accounts, 1976-1983 (1984),
If I Can Cook You Know God Can (1998)
Children's books
Coretta Scott (2009),
Ellington Was Not a Street (2003),
Float Like a Butterfly: Muhammad Ali, the Man Who Could Float Like a Butterfly and Sting Like a Bee (2002),
Daddy Says (2003),
Whitewash (1997)
Novels
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf (Shameless Hussy Press, 1976), Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo (1982),
Betsey Brown (St. Martin's Press, 1985),
The Black Book, Liliane (1995),
Some Sing, Some Cry (2010) (with Ifa Bayeza)
Poetry
Melissa & Smith (1976),
Natural Disasters and Other Festive Occasions (1977),
Nappy Edges (1978),
A Daughter's Geography (1983),
From Okra to Greens (1984),
Ridin' the Moon in Texas: Word Paintings (St. Martin's Press, 1987),
The Love Space Demands (a continuing saga) (St. Martin's Press, 1987),
A Photograph: Lovers in Motion: A Drama (S. French, 1977),
Some Men (1981),
Three Pieces (St. Martin's Press, 1992),
I Live in Music (1994),
The Sweet Breath of Life: A Poetic Narrative of the African-American Family (Atria Books, 2004).
Photography by Kamoinge Inc,
Enuf,
With no Immediate Cause,
you are such a fool,
People of Watts (First published in Nov 1993 in VIBE Magazine),
Blood Rhyhm,
Poet Hero.
Ntozake Shange's most famous work was a 20-part poem that chronicled the
lives of Black women in the United States and was called For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf. The poem was eventually made into the stage play, was then published in book form in 1977, then made into a movie in 2010 (For Colored Girls, directed by Tyler Perry). Since then, Shange has written a number of successful plays.
