Question 1
Clifford Geertz says “Culture may be defined as the ordered system of meanings in terms of which people define their world, express their feelings, and make their judgements” (13, Aptheker). My own life has been a mixture of cultures. As a young child living in my grandfather's house I was made to understand the world through a Catholic view, with a set of rules I had to live by to achieve the ultimate end goal which didn't even come until after death. When I spent time with my dad's family I learned about my jewish roots through stories about my ancestors. I found myself lost to culture shock when I moved from southern California to Alaska as a teen. I witnessed many disparities, many in the native community as a result of colonization.…show more content… Olga Barrios writes, “Shange’s vision of a colored woman’s developed self-esteem establishes the need for black women’s togetherness . . . The play also shows that, in order to achieve a social liberation, black women must first acquire a consciousness of their own lives and selves in order to find the essence of their true identities.” (p 618) Barrios means that black women must locate their own voices and sft through their intersectional identities and oppressions before they can tackle external oppressions. This is the recognition that must precede verbalization and…show more content… Shange considers her work more as poetry than a performance, but there is a performative aspect to it, combining poetry, dance, and song. As the voices in the play examine their identities, they perform and sing and speak their experiences, another example of the verbalization Barrios notes that is vital to achieving self-affirmation.
Once this self-affirmation is achieved, black women can use their identities as a standpoint for social change such as when Beah Richards uses her identity as a black woman and the pain tied with her identity as a way to connect with white women and call to unite against their pain. Another example is how Patricia Hill Collins affirms black feminist thought as a valid standpoint for producing knowledge.
Reading and seeing Shange’s Choreopoem was an emotional experience. The latent rapists’ section was especially painful because it depicted such a personal and accurate picture of rape
