Lost in Language and Sound, Ntozake Shange
Lost in Language and Sound, Ntozake Shange
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Lost in Language and Sound
or, How I Found My Way to the Arts; Essays

Author: Ntozake Shange

Narrator: Allyson Johnson

Unabridged: 4 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/01/2012

Synopsis

Lost in Language and Sound is a vibrant and vital collection that celebrates the three most important muses in the life and work of Ntozake Shange: language, music, and dance. In this deeply personal book, the celebrated writer reflects on what it means to be an artist, a woman, and a woman of color through a beautiful combination of memoir and essay. She describes where her love for creative forces began—in her childhood home, a place where imagination reigned and boredom wasn’t allowed.The essays tell stories ranging from the poignant origin of her celebrated play For Colored Girls to why Shange needed to deconstruct the English language to make that production work; from the intensity of the female experience and the black experience as separate entities to the difficulty of living both lives simultaneously; from the intense love of jazz bestowed on her by her father to a similar obsession with dance, which came from her mother. With deep sincerity, attention, and her legendary candor, Shange’s collection progresses from the public arena to the private, gathering along the way the passions and insights of an author who writes with “such exquisite care and beauty that anybody can relate to her message” (Clive Barnes, New York Times).

About Ntozake Shange

Ntozake Shange, fearless in her quest to affirm the realities of women of color, demonstrates that her name reflects her approach to both her art and her life. In the Zulu language of Xhosa, ntozake means “she who comes with her own things,” and shange means “she who walks like a lion.” She has written numerous novels, works of poetry, essays and screenplays, a plethora of critically acclaimed plays, as well as children’s books. She is the recipient of the 2016 Langston Hughes Medal.

About Allyson Johnson

Allyson Johnson is an actress and singer who began performing at age twelve as coanchor of Bubble Gum Digest, for which she won an Emmy. After earning a degree in psychology from Brown University, she moved to New York where she became a social worker before shifting to a career in television and radio. Johnson has recorded countless commercials, promos, audiobooks, narrations, and animation series.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Cara on August 05, 2014

"I have to scrape the bottoms of souls, dreams, nightmares,and syllables to taste what justice might possibly be" (129). I really like Shange's work as a playwright, poet and children's book author, so I was excited to see that penned this memoir/essay collection. And as she wrote this book of recol......more

Goodreads review by Brandelyn on March 10, 2012

I sat down in one afternoon with my journal and this book and left my coffee shop with my head swirling and my soul full. As a writer and an artist, the honesty and perspective of this artist felt like a mother's hug, full of knowledge and understanding. The transparency of her journey, her triumphs......more

Goodreads review by Andi on April 02, 2014

Absolutely one of the best books about art, the identity of the artist, and the value of art that I have ever read. The book challenged me to think more complexly and outside of my own experience while it also resonated with some of the deepest - but yet unspoken - feelings I have about writing and......more

Goodreads review by Greg on February 14, 2012

Ms Shange never disappoints me in this autobiographical book on her life and all the energies given and taken to achieve the place in literary and poetry on the world's stage. Dancin', singin' and actin' was what she wanted to do with her life. Bravo!!!......more

Goodreads review by Grace on April 20, 2021

This was a slow start for me. The first few essays are a bit "inside baseball" but if you are more familiar with Shange's contemporaries and work than me, you'll probably get more out of it. She goes into the history of Black theater and her most famous creation, "for colored girls who have consider......more

Quotes

“Shange is, above all, a poet. Lost in Language and Sound is nominally prose, but if there’s another writer in America who can write prose like this—with this sort of intricate layering of linguistic play—I wish someone would direct me to them.” San Francisco Chronicle 

“Award-winning poet, playwright, and novelist Shange immerses the reader in the written and spoken fabric of her upbringing and her life as an artist in this evocative melding of essay and memoir… A profoundly personal yet all-encompassing exploration of words, movement, and the state of race in America.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Each essay is personal and contains a great deal of information for both the casual listener and anyone looking for a more analytical view of Shange’s career. Allyson Johnson narrates with authority and confidence in a clear voice and a bright, lively tone.” AudioFile

“Shange, acclaimed novelist, poet, and playwright, seemed not simply to find her way to the arts but, rather, was born to create movement and sound as evidenced by each carefully selected word in these essays.” Library Journal

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