Ntozake shange and the choreopoem

After influencing and being influenced by literary and social movements such as the Black Arts movement, the Gullah Renaissance, and the women’s movement, Ntozake Shange remains one of the most vibrant voices of the page and stage. This chapter explores one of her enduring contributions to the performance world—the choreopoem. For Shange to experience a poem, there must be a marriage of the abstract and material. Poems must be heard on the breath and animated by movement. Shange’s dynamic art form provides space for the realization of this fusion.