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
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
From the top of this hill all of San Francisco sweeps into cascades of mist, strands of clouds and fog that fall through the sky and over the Bay like Iris Chacon’s legs at the San Juan TV station. And those clouds came to dance with me over here, to mambo, to rhumba in a starlit wet night, but Puerto Rico is so far away. I walk the Mission lookin’ every which way for a PR, any PR like me. Yeah, well, compadre, I hadta get back here before Lili censored herself into the company of devotées of La Virgen de Guadalupe. I mean, I’m not lettin’ go of her one little bit, mi corazón, but she’s gettin’ headstrong, wants a limited relationship, equal responsibilities. And I cannot attempt to explain this drivel with any order or passion like the way she does.
Mira, the problem as I see it and know in my heart, which makes it a fact, is that my Lili has crossed over.
Now. I do not mean to say that mi querida dulce has in any way ever deserted her people or my people. I’m just meaning to suggest that this ridiculous affair she’s havin’ with this touchy-feely-lemme-talk-this-thru-witchu white boy is the reason I’m thinkin’ bout layin’ clouds steada layin’ Lili. I mean, hacer de amor con mi Liliane.
Cuidadate, I say to her. When was the last time you heard about a “New White Man,” con los Neanderthals, some Cro-Magnon guys roamin’ Europe stark naked in snow. Hey, tu sabe, negra, that in the future, the future New White Man is still very white, muy muy blanco en el universo sin los negros. Now, whatchu think that portends, corazón?
But does she listen to me? Does she listen to me, the man whose heart beats to the ritmo of her breath, her stride, her, oh. Naw. She looks at me. Rolls my eyes, her eyes, my way. I don’t understand. Oh, baby. The New White Man. The Old White Man. And a woman like you is the history of Puerto Rico. Damn. It’s the history of the New World.
But she don’t listen to me. She’s not gonna run up here and tell you all about it, either. Her daddy would die. Ha, the New White Man. Her mother, no te preocupe con ella; she’s on the other side, gracias a Dios. Oigame. I’m gonna tell you everything I know bout this romance with the Visigoths that Lili, awright, Liliane can’t bring herself to reveal. Of course, she confided in me, cause, hey, I gotta way about me. I’m Victor-Jésus María.