emmasnoveldevice

‘I have never tried to do anything but keep a part-time job and write whenever I felt like it.’

Ntozake Shange

Ntozake Shange was one of a generation of writers who  inspired me to see myself becoming a writer.  James Baldwin was another. (There were no British writers  at that time that did that for me,  and neither, interestingly were there African writers.)

When I learnt she had died it was as if another piece of my formative years fell away and the desire  to be  a writer shifted closer in perspective. (This blog post is not about the fact I haven’t got there yet as I continue with my long  apprenticeship.) I’m  rereading Sassafrass, Cypress  and Indigo and  I must have  first read it over twenty five years ago as a teenager or in my early twenties. The book is   moving, and sad and  funny and also inspiring. I ‘d forgotten how oppressed Sassafrass is in her relationship with Mitch and   that she goes back to him after  he hits her and breaks a promise- not any old promise but one of staying off the dope- a promise about saving his life and not causing havoc in hers.

Ntozake Shange was not only a writer but someone whose life was awash with creativity and sensuality and good times  in dance, clothes, adornments. The combination of dance,  acting, writing and good good food delighted me :   And the  recipes! The  Accra fishcakes and the curried crabmeat  were my favourite.

Her absolute belief in being seeringly truthful although  with  a  lil’ taste of sentimentality.

Of loving ourselves as Black women  and seeking men or women who love us the way we want to be loved

 In writing, how to break the form and create what you want with lower case characters and dialect and poems and dreams and recipes and invites. She gave me the vision of an artistic life, creating the deep urge to become a writer.

The urge to create runs deep throughout the book  and her life.

She died peacefully in her sleep on 27th October 2018 .

In honour.