Poem One Summary

Seven African-American ladies, each in a dress of a different color, run onstage, take up a position of distress and freeze. The lady in brown speaks of the voices of African-American women as being ghostly, unheard amidst screams, whispers and promises. In intense poetic imagery, she calls to the other ladies to find their voices, speak and sing.

The ladies introduce themselves by saying where they live outside of Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Baltimore, San Francisco, Manhattan, and St. Louis.

The lady in brown says that this piece is for colored girls who have considered suicide but have instead made their own happiness.

The ladies sing two songs. The first is "Shortnin' Bread," an African-American folk song from the days of slavery. The second is "Little Sally Walker," a jazzed up, sexy version of a white girl's skipping song from the late...