The following is an imagined letter written by Hilda to Mrs. Fitzhugh. This letter performs the relationship that binds Hilda to Mrs. Fitzhugh, and the way in which Hilda must speak in a way that pleases Mrs. Fitzhugh if Hilda wants the checks to continue rolling in which finance Sassafrass’s education. In Hilda’s letters to…
When readers pick up Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo, we are immediately confronted with claim that she has “too much of the South in her.” Even on this back cover, however, there is a tension between what that means in terms of physical location and spiritual connection. The book summarizes “Indigo, the youngest, is still a…
In the scene with Sassafrass and Mitch in their L.A. apartment, Shange’s Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo, which at times can become fantastic or unreal, grounds itself in historical figures. Sassafrass makes “macrame hangings” of “Malcolm…Fidel, Garvey, Archie Shepp, and Coltrane” and wants to share but is forced to hide the “sequin-and-feather hanging shaped like a…