For colored girls is a collection of poems that dives into the hardship of nine women living in New-York. In 1975, Ntozake Shange wrote a stage play illustrating the nine characters, each of whom was represented by a color. The adaptation of Shange’s play follows the lady in green who goes through an unstoppable heartbreak cycle with the smooth talker Beau Willie Brown.
The lady in blue finds out she cannot have babies due to a mistake she made in her past. The lady in brown is constantly beaten by her lover; the lady in red catches an STI by her cheating husband; the lady in purple, freshly graduated from high school, learns she is pregnant. On the other hand, the lady in orange tries to lose herself in sex with strangers to forget her abused childhood. The lady in yellow gets raped by a man she is dating. The lady in black and the lady in white.

The poems are soulful and speak in a shattered and tough voice. We join these women in their quest for inner peace. When everything is just dark and hope is lost in the mist of incertitude, the chain that links the nine women together helps them search for a better life. I love reading the poems over and over again and being infused with melancholy. Sometimes I read them out loud in a lyrical way like those poets we see in Def Poetry. For colored girls deals with domestic violence, rape, teenage pregnancy, love delusion, STIs, abortion and its consequences. Even though you may have not gone through such mishaps, these poems resonate with you if you have a sense of empathy. The title does not suggest that it is written for women of color, in my opinion, but for all the women of the world, every one of them is unique and colorful, hence the rainbows.

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