Liliane
Chapters (31)
- Cover
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Room in the Dark I
- Fawns of the Diaspora Court Liliane in Paris, While Tabou Combo Whispers “Coq Qualité” in Her Ears
- Room in the Dark II
- “I Usedta Drink, Smoke and Do the Hoochie-Koo,” or What’s a Girl to Do When Her Mother Looks Like Ruth Brown
- Room in the Dark III
- “El Bochinche” es que only Fe Cortijo Knows or All the LeBron Brothers Know If Victor-Jésus María Sang Lili to Her Freedom
- Room in the Dark IV
- And Where Is Garnett Mimms?
- Room in the Dark V
- I Know Where Kansas City Is, But Did Wilbert Harrison Ever Get There?
- Room in the Dark VI
- Zoom Went the Strings of Liliane’s Heart, But Arsenio Rodriguez Could Have Told Her the Music Sounds Just as Sweet When We’re Blind and Still We See
- Room in the Dark VII
- I Know Where the E Train Stops But I’m “Sendin’ Out an S.O.S.” and I’m Not Edwin Starr Either
- Room in the Dark VIII
- “Happy, Happy Birthday, Baby” or Wouldn’t It Be Great If the Lead Singer of The Crests Wasn’t a White Boy and I Could Be My Mother?
- Room in the Dark IX
- Every Time My Lil World Seems Blue, I Just Haveta Look at You and Learn Eye-Hand Coordination
- Room in the Dark X
- “That’s Why I Love Her So and Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, I Want to Know” or Why Jackie Wilson Died in Silence
- Room in the Dark XI
- There’s No Use Cryin’ “Forever” or Hyacinthe Returns from a Very Blue Holiday for Real B(l)ack at Ya
- Room in the Dark XII
- Lollie Struts Her Stuff Thru “The Sea of Love” or the Brides of Frankenstein Catch the Bouquet
- By Ntozake Shange
- Acknowledgments
- Copyright
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
With love for my remarkable
father, Paul T. Williams, M.D.,
who lived in the spirit
& dignity of our people.
Contents
Room in the Dark I
Fawns of the Diaspora Court Liliane in Paris
Room in the Dark II
“I Usedta Drink, Smoke and Do the Hoochie-Koo”
Room in the Dark III
“El Bochinche” es que only Fe Cortijo Knows
Room in the Dark IV
And Where Is Garnett Mimms?
Room in the Dark V
I Know Where Kansas City Is
Room in the Dark VI
Zoom Went the Strings of Liliane’s Heart
Room in the Dark VII
I Know Where the E Train Stops
Room in the Dark VIII
“Happy, Happy Birthday, Baby”
Room in the Dark IX
Every Time My Lil World Seems Blue
Room in the Dark X
“That’s Why I Love Her So”
Room in the Dark XI
There’s No Use Cryin’ “Forever”
Room in the Dark XII
Lollie Struts Her Stuff Thru “The Sea of Love”
Acknowledgments
Room in the Dark I
———
———
——— Maybe it’s not the silences.
———
——— Not the silences that bother me.
———
——— It’s just the noise like a roar inside my head takes over when it’s silent.
———
——— It’s not quiet that I avoid. I never really talk out loud, en pleine aire, when I walk and I walk everywhere I can. I even prefer men who like to walk cause then we can talk with our eyes or our bodies or some strange sign’ll bring us together. No. It’s not quiet that I avoid. I’m quiet when I can hear music.
——— What music?
——— Oh, Bartók and B.B. King, Celia Cruz or Gloria Lynne. I don’t like listenin’ to ex-lovers very much, but I won’t turn them off. Down maybe, but not off.
——— Are ex-lovers part of the noise in your head?
———
——— Or more in the silence?
——— You are interfering with my paradigm here. The music was part of a quiet that’s quite appropriate and tangible, some pleasing part of my own body, my smile, my breath.
——— But you turn ex-lovers down.
——— Yes, down, not off. If I turned them off, they’d be part of the silence and then I wouldn’t be able to hear anything palpable. It’s like going to the moon.
——— The moon?
——— Sí, la luna, la lune, the moon in quiet with Machito or Turrentine is a sultry wanton giggle in my eye, but in silence the moon is just another dry, cracking surface like talkin’ to white people all the time makes me choke, I can’t breathe in silence.
——— Why is that?