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
——— Stop it. Stop it. I can’t take this. I don’t understand what’s happened to me. I lose my best friend. My mother’s not dead. I mean. I don’t have a mother, don’t know where in the hell she is, if she’s not dead now, and all that bastard could tell me was he thought he did the best thing at the time. “I did what I thought was best at the time, my dear,” like this is some reasonable response to why did you tell me my mama was dead when I know you sent her away. What could she have done that was so terrible? Who gave you the right to take my mama from me? He did what he thought best. Jesus, every time I look around white folks are fuckin’ with me. No matter what I do or how I feel, I’ve gotta deal with these goddamn white people.
——— Liliane, I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I don’t understand what white people have to do with your mother’s death or disappearance.
——— Of course not. Nobody understands what white folks have to do with anything except the Enlightenment. Shit. Don’t you get it?
——— No, I don’t. Would you help me “get it”?
——— Shit. Here we go again. I pay you money, but I’m going to help you get it.
——— Liliane, you don’t have to help me do anything. You choose what and how we proceed with your treatment. You know that.
——— Hey, we just established that I hardly “know” anything these days. And you want to know why? Do you want to know why or not? Fuck it. I’m going to tell you whether you want to know or not. White folks got us so tangled up and wound round ourselves we can’t live without them or the idea of them where we can touch it. If we live like white folks don’t exist, like they don’t matter, they kill us. Bang: you dead, nigger. If we act decent, they treat us like fools. If we spend our lives hating them, we look as foolish and psychotic as they do to the rest of the world. Well, shit, that may not be true cause they’ve got the rest of the world kissin’ their behinds, too.
——— What did the white people do to you, Liliane?
——— Wow, you’re really quick. How about slavery? How do you like that for a start?
——— Humm. I thought there might be something more current weighing on your mind, but perhaps I was wrong.