Tonight the girls gathered ’round wine (and gluten-free vanilla mini bundt cakes with fresh whipped cream and blueberries…) to perform a reading of the “choreopoem”/play, “For the Colored Girls who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf” by Ntozake Shange:
When we sat down to dinner, our color napkin decided which character we would assume. I was lady in red.
Every time I read this play in its entirety I love it more. Meant to be “HARLEM,” we substituted Franklinton in for some parts that felt truly true.
“i usedta live in the world,
now i live in [franklinton]
& my universe is now six blocks
when i walked in the pacific
i imagined waters ancient from accra/tunis
cleansin me/feedin me
now my ankles are coated in grey filth
from the puddle neath the hydrant
……
i usedta live in the world
really be in the world
free & sweet talkin
good mornin & thank-you & nice day
uh huh
i cant now
i cant be nice to nobody
nice is such a rip-off
reglar beauty and a smile in the street
is just a set-up”
As the play unravels, each story or monologue becomes more and more intense, and the last is quite brutal.
Meanwhile, in our Free Bitch Cinema Film Series, we recently watched Winter’s Bone by Debra Granik.
Really, the most incredible film I have seen as of late. As a girl who usually falls asleep during movies and tends to have somewhat average film taste, I know that I don’t have great credibility. Luckily, I know some smart people who have excellent taste, and they expose me to incredibly worthwhile material, such as Winter’s Bone (not that it wasn’t out in many theaters, I believe it was a fairly big mainstream release) I’m so obsessed with it that I’m reading the novel the film was based off of. Backward, I know. The story is primarily about Appalachian culture, patriarchy, family relationships, and growing up. It’s like rural fucking Franklinton, which is really just urban Appalachia. Intriguing, confusing, and real.
