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
——— Not the way you do.
——— That’s funny. Nobody hears anything like anybody else does, but we manage to talk and sing. We were singing, we were, weren’t we? In the fall Daddy came in one evening when the sky looked most on fire. It was World Series time. The garden lost all the sunlight every afternoon when swarms of birds black as, black as the Magi rolled up, kept the whole house in a…in an embrace, like we didn’t belong in the rest of the world at all. And it was quiet. Mama was somewhere singing something nobody could hear. I sat by the window waiting for the shadows of the birds to float over me and the dead leaves, when this lush, wonderful warmth lifted me outta myself into the garden. I thought the sun had pushed the birds out the way, but it was Daddy playin’ Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. I thought it was illicit.
——— Why did you think that?
——— Oh my. Because, as Felipe says, “Jazz is a woman’s tongue stuck, dead in your mouth.”
——— Yes, that’s what he thinks. What did you think?
——— Well, we awready established that you can’t hear it.
——— What?
——— The bridge?
——— No.
———
——— But it was warm and lush.
——— Yes, yes it was.
———
——— You wanna know something funny. I had this dream. I was at a truly elegant party. Parquet floors, crystal octagonal chandeliers, and singing champagne glasses. Everything wonderful to taste. All the men in the world I ever dreamed about holding me: They were all there. I was having a wonderful time, sort of like Scarlett O’Hara at that first party at Seven Oaks. Well, I felt unbearably gorgeous, when suddenly I realized that my clit was glowing. I mean, like silver neon lights in Las Vegas, my pussy was beaming artificial light all over this very delicate and elegant fête. No matter how I held myself, what contortions I forced my body into. This glow was irrepressible. People started to stare at me. I was so embarrassed. Then, just as I was about to cry, he came in, took possession of the space, addressed the whole damn lot of them and said: “Oh, her clit’s going to get brighter than that. We’ve been working on it.”
———
——— God, that’s funny.
——— Well, that accounts for your shoelaces.
——— What’d you mean?
——— They’re silver lamé, no?
——— Well, yes, but I bought these the day after…oh, I get it. I’m wearin’ my clit on my shoes.
——— No, more like the glow. The unbearably gorgeous glow you’re wearing and getting around fairly well, I might add.
——— Yeah, right.
———
———
———
——— Did you ever hear that tune “Moanin,” by Bobby Timmons?
——— I think, I can vaguely recall something like that.