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
——— I’m not sure that’s where I’d like to have your mother, but we are absolutely out of time.
——— Oh, my goodness.
——— Liliane, I want these matters addressed next time we meet.
——— Yes, massa.
——— But do not forget, the women in the time of Judges said, “She is worth more to you than seven sons.”
——— I can go home with that.
There’s No Use Cryin’ “Forever” or Hyacinthe Returns from a Very Blue Holiday for Real B(l)ack at Ya
I guess I can’t stay crazy forever. “Play crazy” is what Aurelia call it. Aurelia’s gotta name for everything. I wonder what she calls Lollie. I don’t even know what I call Lollie: my friend, my confidante, my ace boon coon, my sister? See I can’t start to make lists like that cause listing things gets me all revved up and I don’t make sense to other people, so they say I’m crazy. I get mad at them and then I might really seem crazy. But as far as I’m concerned, I don’t know many Africans and descendants thereof who ain’t halfway crazy. Plus, going crazy is so startling and scary to them once they realize their true state of mind, that they pretend sanity, much as they can. Now me, I’ve been crazed so long and so intensely, I’m really good at it, comfortable, you might say.
Sawyer was outta his gorgeous mind, you know. Thought those lovely lean fingers and rapid-fire brain could protect his behind from what Langston callt “the ways of white folks.” Only thing ever protected me was my brother and my madness. That’s why Aurelia says she’s going to work on me now. “Lollie’s getting married, so my nut is off my hands. I can devote myself to you, dear Hyacinthe.” That’s what she said. She did. If my mother could look at me and only see Sawyer, or niggers, I guess I’d be offended, but I’m not. My mama, Bienaimée Malveaux, never got used to the idea, the fact, that she had colored children! I have never been able to figure out what she imagined was gonna fall from her body but some niggahs. Well, it don’t matter cause I’m living proof that ignoring niggahs doesn’t make us go away.