Writer Ntozake Shange comes to Stanford Friday

NTOZAKE SHANGE, who wrote the acclaimed play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, will be on campus Friday, Nov. 12, as part of the Black Community Services Center’s Intellectual Roundtable series. The event is particularly timely, given that the film For Colored Girls, based on Shange’s 1974 play, was released just last week.

“Many of our students have become familiar with Ms. Shange’s work based on the movie For Colored Girls,” said Jan Barker Alexander, director of the Black Community Services Center. “Her visit gives students an opportunity to explore her motivation for writing the original choreopoem, examine her timeless approach to issues such as rape, molestation and domestic violence, and discuss the modern-day adaptation by Tyler Perry. ”

The noontime discussion, co-sponsored by the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, the Drama Department and the Riddell Fund, is free and open to the public. It will be held in the Henry and Monique Brandon Family Community Room at the Black Community Services Center.