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
“Mommy says there’s very little worthwhile in life, if we can’t see it. She says we see most things comin’ our way, but we blind ourselves to it. That’s why I draw everything. I want to see what’s up, what’s coming my way.”
I am too through with all this damn talk. “I awready told you: What I want to come my way is one of Danny’s lil cousins you always talkin’ bout…. That’s what I want. Do you understand me?”
Lili looked up from her notebook, a bit distracted: “If you want a niggah that bad, draw one.”
I know when somebody’s gettin’ fixed to fight with me, so I threw a piece of charcoal at her:
“I don’t want no niggah on paper. Shit.” I was so mad I could feel my platinum hair clingin’ to my forehead and my cheeks flushin’ like I was Sally Starr on some unruly horse.
“If you use your imagination, Lollie, they don’t stay confined to a two-dimensional plane.” Lili is finishin’ the stem of this poppy by her mother’s cheek: rockin’ and drawin’, rockin’ and drawin’ til a big grin burst off her face: “See, Lollie, I told you. If you want it, draw it.”
I’m bout fit to be tied. “If I gotta do all that, I don’t want no niggah…. I want that white boy who’s the lead singer with The Crests. He’s so fine. Good God. He likes niggahs, too.”
“Lollie, I must say that’s white of him.” Lili responded slowly, never interrupting her strokes.
“You said to draw whatever I wanted,” I spat back.
“Yeah. Well, I didn’t think I had to say it.”
“Say what? What are you talkin’ about?”
That’s me talkin’, bouncing up and down on the bed, tryin’ to break her concentration.
“We don’t draw white men in this house. Johnnie Maestro or any other cracker, not here. Is that clear?”
“You said use my imagination,” I told her right back.
“Then, imagine something else, heifer.” Liliane dismissed my early mornin’ fantasies and turned again to her work: her flowers, her mother’s face among the flowers and her dreams. All of a sudden she leapt up from her drawing papers with this strange grin, light in her eyes: “If anyone in this house ever brings home a white boy, then Johnnie Maestro is not white and my papa’s dead.”