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
——— No, I left my house to come over here. Oh, this is really crazy.
——— You brought your crazy selves, that were falling away from you here. Maybe, this is their home. The slipping parts of you may need to be somewhere puddles of feelings aren’t out of place.
——— This is a fuckin’ mess.
——— I don’t mind.
——— I do. I do. I do.
——— Why all this vehemence about a little messiness. People are messy creatures.
——— I just want to get myself together.
——— Like a puzzle?
——— What?
——— What parts are missing that keep you from being “together”?
——— Missing. What’s missing? I forgot to tell you I lost a baby. I got rid of a baby.
———
——— I don’t know. There was no way around it. Huh, I’m not the mother type, you know. I think they should come talkin’ and potty-trained, you know. I just couldn’t stand it, the idea that some child, somebody, would love me like nobody else on the earth and all I’d be able to say is I don’t know how to do this and whoever your pop is doesn’t care about me or you enough to pretend he cares. Oh, this is nuts….
——— Are the puddles of yourselves mixed up with the lost baby?
——— I don’t know. I just want to go home. Is it time to go yet?
——— No, we’ve more than thirty minutes.
——— Thirty minutes, oh. Where was I…I know. I never did like to see women with babies. They looked so beat-down, covered with baby equipment, just mommy, not a woman with a name or feelings, like a pack animal or something. I don’t have any place to put a baby.
——— Of course not. You’re overflowing, coming out of yourself, in streams and messes.