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
Don’t ask me how I knew, but I was sure the street was more terrible than the dance hall. It was the crackers’ territory. They neighborhood and like that. Shit. Somebody shoulda brought some guns. Don’t matter if you a Blue or a White Team girl, if you black in the ’burg you outta bounds and I’m black if I’m alive and I swear for Jesus I wasn’t bout to meet my maker in the ’burg and I wasn’t bout to risk my behind lookin’ out for two bitches couldn’t fight as good as po’ white trash. Who did they think they were? They don’t haveta know how to do nothin’ bout theyselves? Shit. I pushed that Rose Lynne gal on her ass so fast she was happy to hold on to that ol’ tree root. Danny shoved Liliane behind him, when this crowd of white boys started runnin’ toward us, shoutin’: “Get them niggahs.” Liliane tried to stand up with one shoe on, the other broke in her hand. I pulled her down on top of me just as this cracker fool whipped a chain above our heads. We just crawled and kicked and moaned toward the curb til I saw Flo, my cousin, backin’ her car up with the doors open in the back. I shouted to Danny; “Hey, we gotta book now, man.” Then I smacked that Rose Lynne bitch: “Get in the car, fool.” “But, it’s movin’,” she says. “It’s movin’, the car is movin’,” I’m thinkin’ to myself. Then, I realize Liliane’s runnin’ in the wrong direction. She thinks Flo is tryin’ to get her. I go after Liliane. Flo rears the car back toward us more, but there’s more guineas back this way. Danny throws Rose Lynne in the backseat. Liliane hears us callin’ her finally. I grab her arm as she gets close enough, we try to jump for the car, but some greasy ducktail fool get holdt of Liliane’s ankle and won’t let go. I shout to Patsy, tell Flo to keep the car movin’, don’t stop or we are some dead colored people. Danny’s climbin’ over Rose Lynne’s sobbin’ body, tryin’ to help me, but I can’t tell who’s talkin’ to me. Liliane’s swingin’ on the pavement like a bunch of tin cans at somebody’s wedding, but the sounds she makin’ ain’t hardly no tinklin’s of joy. I tell her to kick the muthafuckah off her. Just kick. Kick I tell her.