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
——— Yes. Oh, yes, can I tell you one?
——— Well, you know, Liliane, I’m at your service.
——— Yeah, fifty minutes a week, muthafuckah.
——— Well, do you really want to marry me?
——— Hell, no. That’s more than a lifetime commitment. That’s my mother and my father and their mothers and fathers all sayin’ that they in love with you.
——— Well, isn’t that a reasonable possibility?
——— No. You too dark.
——— Cause I’m Creole, Liliane.
——— Who would know that?
——— Well, I’m supposing that your family’d know every possible reason they won’t want you to marry me. I’m shiftless, I’m brutal, I’m ignorant; I’m stupid; I’m clumsy; I was born on the left side of the bed.
——— No, that would help. My grandma always said chirren born on the left side of the bed brought God’s bounty. Niggah, what in the fuck are you talkin’ bout?
——— Whether I am your curse or your dream?
——— And so? You know my mommy married that awful white man and took his name S. Bliss Rothenstein as if me and Daddy had never existed?
——— What does that have to do with us?
——— Sometimes I think you are really with me. Then I turn around and you are just another stupid muthafuckah.
——— But how could I know that, Liliane. You say I am too smart and turn round and say I’m dumb…That I’m here and not here? I can understand everything about you and I can’t?
——— Can we really talk about my dream?
——— Of course.
——— But I don’t mean my “dreams,” I mean a dream I had.
——— Fine.
——— No. I mean, don’t screw me around. For alla my life my “dream” has been to marry into one of those families like my family and end up idiots with some land and titles.
——— What has that to do with your dream?
——— Well, nothing, actually.
——— Liliane, I am getting the definite impression that your dreams are being forced into somebody else’s “dream” who has nothing to do with us.
——— Anybody black has something to do with us.
———
———
——— Is everybody else in your dream?
——— No, but…
———