The final installment of a three-part Black History Month film series at the Normal Theater isn’t a film. On Feb. 24, a group of Illinois State University students will perform a staged reading of Ntozake Shange's landmark 1976 choreopoem for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf.
Presented by ISU’s African American Studies program, the trio of works intentionally spans a range of time periods. The series kicked off Feb. 3 with the 2023 documentary One Million Experiments profiling community-centered approaches to public safety. On Feb. 10, they screened I Am Not Your Negro, Raoul Peck’s 2016 film reflecting on the history of racism in the United States through James Baldwin’s unfinished memoir.
“That first film, One Million Experiments, really provided context for what we can be doing today — literal examples across cities in America to demonstrate ways they are engaging their communities around safety,” said African American Studies director Brea Banks. “And then that second film, really, we wanted to make sure students are also aware of the past.”
For colored girls’… 20 poems represent a kind of chronological middle. Shange was just the second Black woman playwright on Broadway [preceded by Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun]. She and her contemporaries [Toni Morrison and Alice Walker among them] arose at the tail end of the Black Arts Movement — but with a distinctly feminist lens.
It has resurfaced on several occasions. Tyler Perry wrote, produced and directed a film adaptation that premiered in 2010 with an all-star cast including Whoopi Goldberg, Janet Jackson, Phylicia Rashad, Thandie Newton and Kerry Washington. Camille A. Brown directed and choreographed a Tony-nominated revival in 2022.
The idea to add for colored girls... to the Black History Month Film Series came from theater history professor Le’Mil Eiland.
“We were really engaged and excited to have Illinois State students be on stage and use their voices to bring this story alive,” said Banks. “We obviously have courses in history, English, sociology, psychology, but then we also have our folks over in the arts who have so much to say creatively. That creative piece is really important.”
Laina Werner-Powell, who teaches jazz and modern dance technique and dance history courses, will moderate a panel discussion to follow the staged reading.
“This particular work really speaks to the lived experiences of women across demographic and community,” Banks said. “I think solidarity is the word that really stands out.”
Art imitates life
In seeking input across the African American Studies faculty to curate the film series, Banks also affirms the program’s importance as various diversity, equity and inclusion [DEI] initiatives have been targeted by the Trump administration.
In addition to gutting DEI staff in most federal agencies, on Feb. 6, the National Endowment for the Arts cut its Challenge America grant, urging arts presenters to steer clear of anything addressing or serving marginalized groups. The assault on DEI in higher education began well before Trump took office, placing a looming, existential threat on certain academic programs.
“I’m very fortunate to have a dean and a college who have supported our program financially and in other ways,” said Banks, noting Dean Heather Dillaway’s presence at the I Am Not Your Negro screening. “Programs like ours have been cut across the country.”
Banks relies on “strength in numbers,” citing strong collaboration and leadership from Maura Toro-Morn, director of the Latin American and Latino Studies program, and interim Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies director Jason Whitesel. In March, the WGSS program will host its own queer cinema series at the Normal Theater.
“We are important to the training of our students — and equally so, to the experiences of our faculty members,” said Banks. “I feel really supported by my college and we’ve been vocal about our needs. We feel programs like ours need to stay and need to continue to be relevant in the training of our undergraduate and graduate students at Illinois State.”
A staged reading of Ntozake Shange's for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf takes place at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 24 at the Normal Theater, 209 North Street, Normal. Admission is free and the first 50 attendees also get free concessions.
