National Portrait Gallery Presents Photograph of the Late Poet and Playwright Ntozake Shange
Credit: Ntozake Shange by Anthony Barboza, gelatin silver print, 1977. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Gift of Danica, Celefio, and Lien Barboza. Copyright Anthony Barboza
The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery recognizes the life and legacy of late poet and playwright Ntozake Shange with a gelatin silver print photograph taken in 1977 by Anthony Barboza. The portrait will be installed in the museum’s In Memoriam space on the first floor. Media are invited to view and photograph the portrait during a special open house today, Oct. 30, beginning at 11:30 a.m. The portrait will be on view until further notice.
Shange sought to empower women of color by telling their stories, honoring their struggles and celebrating their strength. Reared in a culturally rich but sheltered environment, she was shaken by the racism she encountered as a young woman and grappled with feelings of anger and alienation. After surviving a suicide attempt at 19, the burgeoning writer found ways to channel that trauma into her most compelling work.
In the early 1970s, having renounced her birth or “slave” name (Paulette Williams) in favor of an African one meaning “she who comes with her own things / she who walks like a lion,” Shange began developing her groundbreaking “choreopoem,” For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf. Rooted in the experiences of contemporary black women, the performance piece reached Broadway in 1976, where it was hailed for its powerful and passionate storytelling. Over the next four decades, Shange penned several plays, poetry collections, novels and essays.
An image of this portrait is available for press at newsdesk.si.edu; the work can also be photographed or filmed in the museum. For access, contact Concetta Duncan at duncanc@si.edu.
National Portrait Gallery
The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery tells the multifaceted story of the United States through the individuals who have shaped American culture. Spanning the visual arts, performing arts and new media, the Portrait Gallery portrays poets and presidents, visionaries and villains, actors and activists, whose lives tell the American story.
The National Portrait Gallery is part of the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture at Eighth and F streets N.W., Washington, D.C. Smithsonian information: (202) 633-1000. The public can connect with the museum at npg.si.edu, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and the museum’s blog.
# # #
SI-599-2018
