Selected Works by Ntozake Shange & Ifa Bayeza: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

The cover of the small booklet is a dark blue, with a full cover graphic illustration in black featuring several female faces, fish, hearts, stars, a birthday cake and other imagery. Text in the center reads [Selected Works by / Ntozake Shange / & / Ifa Bayeza]. The title page reads [Selected Works / by / Ntozake Shange / & / Ifa Bayeza / dedicated to / Eloise and Paul / our parents]. The back of that page has text at the bottom which reads [Some Sing Some Cry © 2007 Ntozake Shange & Ifa Bayeza / Cover Art “Dream In Black & White 2” © 2007 Jill Fressinier]. The first page features a biography of both authors, as well as a description of Some Sing, Some Cry, a novel written by the two authors, who are real-life sisters. There are 27 unnumbered pages, with the last page of text noting the edition number [32/100]. The last page of the booklet is solid black, and the back cover is solid blue.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 2007
• Written by: Ntozake Shange, American, 1948 - 2018
• Written by: Ifa Bayeza, American
• Illustrated by: Jill Fressinier
• Type: booklets
• Medium: ink on paper
• Dimensions: H x W x D: 8 1/2 × 5 1/2 × 1/16 in. (21.6 × 14 × 0.2 cm)
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Families
• Topic: Literature
• Topic: Poetry
• Topic: Women
• Object number: 2016.131.2.5
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Ntozake Shange
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © Ntozake Shange Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.