BooksBarbecue
Back Liliane
Chapters (31)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Contents
  5. Room in the Dark I
  6. Fawns of the Diaspora Court Liliane in Paris, While Tabou Combo Whispers “Coq Qualité” in Her Ears
  7. Room in the Dark II
  8. “I Usedta Drink, Smoke and Do the Hoochie-Koo,” or What’s a Girl to Do When Her Mother Looks Like Ruth Brown
  9. Room in the Dark III
  10. “El Bochinche” es que only Fe Cortijo Knows or All the LeBron Brothers Know If Victor-Jésus María Sang Lili to Her Freedom
  11. Room in the Dark IV
  12. And Where Is Garnett Mimms?
  13. Room in the Dark V
  14. I Know Where Kansas City Is, But Did Wilbert Harrison Ever Get There?
  15. Room in the Dark VI
  16. 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
  17. Room in the Dark VII
  18. I Know Where the E Train Stops But I’m “Sendin’ Out an S.O.S.” and I’m Not Edwin Starr Either
  19. Room in the Dark VIII
  20. “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?
  21. Room in the Dark IX
  22. Every Time My Lil World Seems Blue, I Just Haveta Look at You and Learn Eye-Hand Coordination
  23. Room in the Dark X
  24. “That’s Why I Love Her So and Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, I Want to Know” or Why Jackie Wilson Died in Silence
  25. Room in the Dark XI
  26. There’s No Use Cryin’ “Forever” or Hyacinthe Returns from a Very Blue Holiday for Real B(l)ack at Ya
  27. Room in the Dark XII
  28. Lollie Struts Her Stuff Thru “The Sea of Love” or the Brides of Frankenstein Catch the Bouquet
  29. By Ntozake Shange
  30. Acknowledgments
  31. Copyright

——— Liliane, when you didn’t even know which baby you were, to be saved, in the first place, they took care of you. I’m sure they’ll do anything you want them to do in any dream you ever have. Just remember, you made them up, so they don’t take no shit.

——— Is that all?

——— Why, Lili, I think you may be right.

——— So, does that make me a boy?

——— No, that makes us right on time.

——— Well, I’m not quite ready to go yet.

——— Well, what are you planning to do?

——— Oh, I won’t bother you, I’m just going to stand out here and see if I can get a whiff of some real testosterone. I wanna be real clear when I explain to the “warriors” in my dreams how it is they sposed to smell. You see?

——— Oh, yes, Lili. I see very clearly, now. Next week.

“That’s Why I Love Her So and Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, I Want to Know” or Why Jackie Wilson Died in Silence

You don’t believe it and neither do I, but I been invited to Liliane Lincoln’s sixteenth birthday party. Now get to this shit, the bitch is having a slumber party. I guess that means we gonna get a lil bit and go on to sleep. Hey, I know better than that, but what the hell she invite my black ass for? She knows I done peeped her game. Hey, after that sicko job she did on me and Danny in New York, you think I’m gonna trust that bitch a stitch? You got it.

My moms, she’s all honored and that. Her baby’s gonna stay the night with the daughter of the first black judge we ever heard of. Shit. First black muthafuckah send a niggah to Annondale quick as a guinea. That’s all that means to me. Jesus. You’d think them Lincolns was the water Christ walked on. Enough niggahs done drank something magical at Liliane’s well to heal the sick for miles. That’s what I hear, and I don’t interpret nothin’ that ain’t the God’s truth. Don’t even raise your eyes to doubt me, now. Have you ever, ever in all your born fawnin’-over-cracker days, known Bernadette to lie. See. Don’t make me get upset.

I gotta go to a “slumber party.” Jesus. Last time Miss-all-the-race-can-depend-on had a slumber party, didn’t nobody come. She came boo-hoo-ing bout prejudice and mean white folks. I say what you expect? Since they might be test-proved-crackers, smart peckawoods, they gonna sleep the night in a niggah bed? Give me a break.

Then give my ass a break, bitch. Shit. I get so tired of her bullshit.