for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf 1976

Structurally, For Colored Girls is a series of 20 poems, collectively called a 'choreopoem.' Shange's poetry expresses the many struggles and obstacles that African-American women face throughout their lives. It is performed by a cast of seven women characters, each of whom is known only by a color: "Lady in Yellow," "Lady in Purple," etc.



The poems deal with love, abandonment, rape, and abortion, embodied by each woman's story. For example, Lady in Blue's visceral account of a woman who chooses to have an abortion, and Lady in Red's tale of domestic violence. The end of the play brings together all of the women for a "laying on of hands," in which Shange evokes the power of womanhood as the Lady in Red begins the mantra "I found God in myself/and I loved her/I loved her fierce."