What, there were no women around?

As if we aren't already inundated with Tyler Perry's bullshit movies and television show where he insists on dressing in drag and not being funny, now I've received the upsetting news that he is adapting Ntozake Shange's "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf."

My faithful readers might recall my previous posts on For Colored Girls...not to mention that the choreopoem was a major inspiration for my blog title. Rainbows, ahem.

I'm unhappy. Aside from the fact that I can't think of a single project Tyler Perry's done that I've liked, umm, hello? This is a woman's piece. A woman's perspective is crucial for this piece. Crucial. You can't tell me that Tyler Perry read "for colored girls" and thought, "Exactly. I've been there before." He's not even believable in drag. Come ON.

So he's going to adapt monologues like this:

ever since I realized there waz someone callt
a colored girl an evil woman a bitch or a nag
i been tryin not to be that & leave bitterness
in somebody else's cup/come to somebody to love me
...
left screamin in a street fulla lunatics/whisperin
slut bitch bitch nigga/get outta here wit alla that
i didn't have any of that for you/i brought what joy
i found & i found joy
...
i used to joke abt when i waz messin round/but a real dead
lovin is here for you now/cuz i don't know anymore/how
to avoid my own face wet wit my tears/cuz i had convinced
myself colored girls had no right to sorrow/ & i lived
& loved that way & kept sorrow on the curb/allegedly
for you/but i know i did it for myself

This movie should be adapted by a black woman. I don't really see how we can argue otherwise. It's the heart of the piece, and I'm so disappointed that Tyler Perry's not using his influence to do this movie with a talented black female writing and adapting it. He could still produce it! That's fine. Whatever. But a woman should write it, and a woman should direct it.

No surprise that I got this bad news passed on from Jay, via TNC. You can read a couple more perspectives there.

Sigh. Tyler Effing Perry. To quote from "for colored girls":

never mind sister
don't pay him no mind
go go go go go sister
do yr thing
never mind

He better pull this off. Check out these two clips from a performance of "for colored girls." These are two of my favorite passages.