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
“Then, I don’t know how I got there. I was in the kitchen with a butcher knife. I was looking at my Zoom, saying, ‘You get out of my house now. Get out right now.’ He looked bewildered. I said, ‘Zoom, get out now before I try to hurt you. Get out.’ I screamed. I started to cry but my hand didn’t waver. I held the knife in front of me toward the door til I heard him start up the bike. Then I knew how primitive I am. Victor, I couldn’t have a white man, not even Zoom, raise his voice to me in my house. I just couldn’t.”
Ha. And you thought she wasn’t my girl.
“Every single word, every step he took toward me, became somewhere else, somebody else, another white man, out of his place, any white man putting himself in my life where he didn’t belong, had no rights. I looked at Zoom, my Zoom, the black curls dancin’ over his eyes, but he wasn’t there. Only a snarlin’ mouth with white trash beard crowdin’ his lips kept circlin’ me. I had to do somethin’. This is my house. This isn’t the Highway Five or Alabama, or Chambersburg. I’m the one who makes the rules in my house. White people just can’t walk in and turn everything upside down, make me not belong to me again. He was just everywhere. Oh, he’s shouting for me to listen to what he’s sayin’. I don’t haveta listen to shit. I’ve heard every goddamned idea any white man ever had. I’ve heard it all awready. He musta lost his mind. Well, I showed his stupid white ass. If a niggah bitch is what he was after, a niggah bitch gone fuckin’ crazy is what he muthafuckin’ got. Jesus, my grandma must be rollin’ in her grave. Lord, what am I gonna do? What can I do now to be rid of this mess? Shit. How could this happen? How could this happen to me? How did I do this? I’ve gotta take responsibility for myself, I know. How am I gonna get that fuckin’ cracker voice outta my house? How am I gonna get him off me? His hands and tongue, his arms. He usedta lift me til my head touched the ceilin’. ‘We were goin’ to reach the foothills of Heaven,’ he said. ‘We were. That nothin’ and nobody was going to stop us.’”