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
And dontcha know with one door bein’ broke down, glass crashin’ everywhere, and girls shriekin’ til they had no more breath, any niggah thought she was on a Blue Team sho’ stepped fast to a black one. We wasn’t fightin’ no White Team now. We was up against a mess of race-crazed crackers who couldn’t hold pencils no better’n us or read faster or talk clearer; just some white trash defendin’ what lil they knew they had: a bunch of nasty lil streets with nasty lil relatives of Paul Anka and Fabian tendin’ to em. But shit, we couldn’t kick ass like we was accustomed. I’m in my heels, five inches and a dress too tight to waddle. Alla that came off cause I wasn’t havin’ no guinea jump bad with me and not pay. I’m pullin’ my arm back to swing into this Funicello-lookin’ bitch, when Danny comes shoutin’: “We gotta get Liliane outta here.” I know that boy had lost his brains up in that hincty gal’s crotch, but hell we all hadta get outta there. It was like in the movies. You know, how the saloon girls get up next to the wall like the wall’s gonna protect em? I saw Liliane and that Rose Lynne tryin’ to climb over and thru folks who was lookin’ like bloody messes gone completely wild. Those two didn’t hide they faces or crouch over to stop off punches. It was pathetic. But me thinkin’ bout them, just set me up for some real fool guinea gal decided to pull my head off my neck. Well, once I threw her ass over a table, I moved my behind over to the wall where the simple-assed Liliane and her friend was tryin’ to follow Danny out to the street.