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
——— I know how to fix you. “I’ll see you in my dreams.”
I Know Where the E Train Stops But I’m “Sendin’ Out an S.O.S.” and I’m Not Edwin Starr Either
One thing for sure was Cadwalder Creek was nothing like Baisley Lake in Queens. I mean, for one thing there’s benches and trees, tennis courts, and a promenade that goes all the way around the water just how the boardwalk straddles Asbury Park or Atlantic City, but without the hawkers and trash. Then, of course, there’s no ocean. Now I’ve been down South where my folks are from; even went to Rehoboth one time. But see, comin’ to Baisley Park was, well, real excitin’ cause there was more colored people like Liliane and her daddy.
I always thought that whole bunch was strange, but I liked to fell out laughin’ when I heard the good judge was sendin’ Liliane to Queens to get away from us. Wasn’t her fault or nothin’, but your kin can’t be puttin’ way everybody’s relations and expect kindly reactions. Hell, he would have been after me, but I was a friend of Danny’s, which meant I was a friend of Liliane’s too, in some kind of way. Of course, I never took advantage of all this favor and do, but I know Danny and Liliane was looking for me to even up the score on the favors I done did for her ass. Seems like to me that with all the experiences and folderol spent on the girl that she’d add up to something more than she was, but I ain’t never really been nowhere, so who am I to say. But lemme tell you how we got to Baisley Park in the first place. Humph, I need to remind myself sometimes how peculiar colored folks’ lives really are.