Tyler Perry’s big screen adaptation of For Colored Girls was kind of a weird mutation of the original stage play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf. The 1997 Choreopoem by Ntozake Shange drew the power of its narrative from the power of individual voices. Restructuring it into a more traditional cinematic drama as Perry did, robs it of much of that power.
The slam-style mid-to-late ‘90’s spoken word style of Ntozake Shange’s stage drama is mirrored in the work of Milwaukee playwright/poet Linetta Davis.
Davis Choreopoem A Black Woman’s Burden covers similar ground as Shange’s work in a style all its own. The effort to harness the power of individual voices into powerful narrative texts is a very primal one.
Davis’ work will be staged this coming weekend at the Wisconsin Black Historical Society on 2620 West Center Street. Tickets are $20 each. For more information, call the WBHS at 414-372-7677.
For those unfamiliar, here’s a low-res digital taste of Davis’ work:
