African Voices Spring 2020 AVSPRING2020 | Page 3

VOLUME NO. 16, ISSUE 38
Founded in 1992, published since 1993
325 Lafayette Ave., C.F. Suite,
Brooklyn, NY 11238
Phone: [phone]
www.africanvoices.com
PUBLISHER/EDITOR
Carolyn A. Butts
BOARD CHAIRPERSON
Jeannette Curtis-Rideau
BOOK REVIEW EDITOR
Debbie Officer
POETRY EDITOR
Angela Kinamore
ART DIRECTOR
Derick Cross
ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR
AZIZA
PRODUCTION EDITOR/
COPY EDITOR
Denile Doyle
LAYOUT & DESIGN
Graphic Dimensions
Lorraine Rouse
P ublisher ’ s N ote
“Language alone protects us from the scariness of things with no
names. Language alone is meditation.”
— Toni Morrison
We’re still processing Toni Morrison’s recent passing. As a
spiritual mother who guided us towards writing, publishing
and reading great art, we cannot express the loss of her voice
during a challenging time when her voice in this realm was
solace. Her courage in using her art to crack open and break
down all the “isms” with a deep love for us will be passed on
for generations to come.
Part 2 of our Ntozake Shange issue honors two Black women writers whose language
ignited movements around the principles of self-love, healing and interconnectivity.
Toni Morrison and Ntozake Shange freed us from restricting cultural mores while
stretching our language and shifting our gaze. We tip our pens in gratitude to Toni
and Ntozake for being a wealth of inspiration and knowledge.
In “Early Zake Memories,” dancer/writer/scholar Halifu Osumare shares Ntozake’s
transformative years as an artist living in San Francisco’s Bay Area where she started
merging language with movement. Osumare states, “Her words can only be written
by a Black woman writer who is also a dancer. In Nappy Edges, published right after
for colored girls, Zake says ‘no gust of wind tickle me.’ Here she speaks of Black
dancer’s woman-body, not an anorexic ballerina, but a Yoruba descendant woman-
body that has butt and some thighs and enjoys the relationship between the two.”
Our issue includes pieces from artists influenced by her work alongside writers
paying tribute to Ntozake. Poets Abiodun Oyewole, Venus Jones and scholar/
writer Pamela Booker offer their dedications of Zake’s impact on personal liberation.
Scriptwriter Chanel Dupree gives us a Black girl’s tale in Salvage, a story of
cultural appropriation.
ISSN 1530-0668 In storyteller/poet Gha’il Rhodes Benjamin’s “Tiddies Ain’t Everything” a woman
reclaims her power as a cancer survivor. She writes, “i still got a heart a soul and a
brain/two legs that walk without a cane/and a girlfriend who says/‘with the one you
have left...and the one I have left/they make a nice pair of tiddies’.”
African Voices is supported with funds
from West Harlem Development Corp.,
NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs and
New York State Council on the Arts. Our back cover includes a piece by photographer Charise Isis who started The Grace
Project, a portrait series honoring women who have triumphed over breast cancer to
seize their power.
© 2020, African Voices Communications, Inc.
is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization.
Ntozake’s art celebrates a woman’s body as the ultimate temple where freedom
resides. We close our tribute with a dedication to breast cancer survivors for
reminding us the importance of embracing love as a guiding principle in all we do
through our healing journeys. This is the legacy left by Toni and Zake.
Front Cover: Ntozake Shange, Adál, 1992.
Back Cover: Charise Isis, The Grace Project.