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
She smiled, thanking the wind for bringing him so close to her, and the night was black and Judge Parnell loved to speed. Liliane started singing some, probably the Shirelles. Oh, it had to be “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.” Judge Parnell watched his child, his little girl, making it with the wind and fog, singin’ and grinnin’. A grin he’d seen many times before on the faces of young girls in love with young hoodlums he sent away from them. They never really believed til too late that their heartthrob, the being and reason for taking time to breathe, could just be outta reach for real, arbitrarily, or forever.
“You know, darlin’, nothin’s ever going to come of those boys in town there, where you were, I mean.”
Liliane’s jaws tightened. She refused to sit up quite straight, but she knew she couldn’t make love to the wind.
“Well, Papa, you brought yourself up outta much worse.”
“That’s exactly what I mean, Liliane. Those boys have no fight in them, and with no fight a Negro man has no chance.”
“That’s ridiculous, Daddy. Why, you know every fella in there belonged to one of them gangs from the East Ward or the South Ward. Even the ones from The Crossing got a name of their own.”
Judge Parnell sighed. He looked absently out the window. How was he gonna say what he said.
“Liliane, those fellas only got sense enough to fight for what little they know about. They don’t have the backbone to fight for what’s never happened, or for dreams.”
“And what’s dreaming gotta do with being called a niggah whore, or not being able to go to the Chapin School.”
“Dreaming’s got a whole goddamn sight to do with it. Look at DuBois, or even Dr. King, Nkrumah, or Charlie Parker. Those are men who never happened before and the world hasn’t been the same since.”
“Oh, Daddy, you already told me a courageous colored man is one with death on his heels.”
“Right.”
“What d’ya mean, ‘right’?”
“Well, a man like that needs the kinda woman you’re gonna be one of these days, if ya don’t spoil yourself.”
“Spoil myself?”
“That’s what I said.”
“Okay. Okay. So where are they? These rich little colored boys?”
“At the Bluffs, Kentucky Lakes, Rehoboth Beach, and McLean, Virginia.”
“So why’re you taking me to Bellmawr, then?”
“Oh, Liliane, you’re still Daddy’s secret.”
Cry Baby, Cry Baby, Cry Baby
Welcome back home
—GARNETT MIMMS
Room in the Dark V
——— So what do you want to do today?
——— What do you want to do? We can do anything you like.
——— I should have known you’d say that. “We can do whatever you want.” Don’t you ever get tired of being caught up in a bunch of neurotics’ fantasies?
——— Is that what you think I do?