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
——— Cause it presses down on me like a man who doesn’t know his own weight can fuck me to death cause literally he’s also blocking my esophagus, or like a wrong turn in the middle of the night in South Boston can take my breath away. What difference does it make? It’s quiet. It’s silent. So what? You know, that’s not my biggest problem right now.
——— What is your biggest problem?
——— Damn it. I told you, Jesus Christ, I musta told you a thousand times, I can’t breathe.
——— When it’s silent?
——— Yes.
——— That’s why my silences, here with you, are troubling, then?
——— Oh…
———
——— How’re you gonna help me in silence?
——— Well, then we can get to hear the noises in your head that are choking you.
———
———
——— It wasn’t always true.
———
——— Uhmn. I didn’t always need to hear anything or not hear anything. I have never had asthma, but now when somebody, even a soap starlet’s voice isn’t audible, if there’s no music or chatter, or the phone’s not ringing, I mean, not answered, I start gaspin’ and next thing I know I’m holdin’ my throat like my hands are healin’ hands and I can’t find any air. I forget where I am. My feet aren’t really on the ground. Oh hell, I don’t know where my feet are when there’s that kinda force, my God, all I can imagine is being caught inside a roll of thunder. Now, could you get a holda yourself in a roll of thunder?
——— Why not lightning?
——— Cause I’m not burnin’ up, I’m chokin’ to death.
———
——— I told you I can’t take this. I cannot survive in silence.
——— It’s not really the silence you believe you can’t survive. It’s the noise in your head that you only hear in silence.
——— I’ve only mastered Quiet Time, how’s that?
——— A start.
———
———
——— When it’s really silent, I can’t feel anything. I mean, I start to lose where the floor is. Why a flower is different from a rug, you know to feel, or even that walls don’t curve under themselves like cats. I just know that I’ve gotta go to sleep right now or get outta here. I’ve gotta find somebody to talk to me. Somebody who knows me.
——— Somebody who loves you.
——— No.
——— No?
——— Doesn’t matter long as he won’t hurt me.
——— “He”?
——— Oh. Don’t put on so…. You know, the bastard tried to choke me right at Sheridan Square the night my show opened. He spit on the sidewalk, turned round, and wrapped his fingers bout my neck like I was a magnum of Perrier & Jouët.
———
——— I thought…
———
——— We were lovers.
———
——— We usedta walk all the time and hear the most beautiful music.
———