For Colored Girls In Ntozake Shange's When The Rainbow

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For colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf is a play by Ntozake Shange, inspired by and built from the stories of New York women of color who used to perform on bar countertops in Manhattan.
The first thing I noticed when the actresses entered the stage were the costumes. While each character is represented by a color, all of them wear at least one item of another color. This seems to play with the theme of interconnection and sisterhood; these women might be different, but they all have a common humanity and experience. These items, however, appear to be restraining. The woman in green wears a purple scarf tied around her neck, others have a piece of colored fabric on their wrist or ankle. The effect reminds

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