Ellington Was Not a Street by Ntozake Shange

The text is actually a poem by the well-respected author Ntozake Shange (it wasn't written for a picture book but written as a poem and later turned into the picture book) the little girl you see on the cover is Ntozake herself, and the story/poem is about all the famous and inspiring men who came to her father's house when she was little from musicians to authors to politicians and all striving for racial equality. I've become a huge fan of Kadir Nelson's wonderful breadth of work and his illustrations here are as expressive, moving and beautiful as ever! Just see if you can resist checking out the book after you take a look at that little girl's expression the cover.!!! -)Īs for the book itself, I'm not sure it really worked for me as a picture book though I appreciate the intent behind it. Shange’s Mood Indigo poem, dedicated to Duke, the first part of a trilogy: This is really a book celebrating African American men-she grew up in “the company of men”-such as Paul Robeson, Dizzy Gillespie, Honey Bear Akins, The Clovers.

But this is in part a memoir for Shange-I was there!-during what was (perhaps) a harder time to be black in America than now, and what could be forged in that isolation, often powerful, such as the music of Ellington.Īs she says, “DuBois walked up my father’s stairs” (!! Imagine that!) Trust me, I live in segregated Chicago, near segregated Milwaukee, and whatever work to de-segregate schools and housing has largely been undone.

A picture book by the poet Ntozake Shange, beautifully illustrated by Kadir Nelson in part about Duke Ellington, but more broadly about a time in which segregation was more rigidly enforced by skin color.

Ellington Was Not a Street by Ntozake Shange