Ntozake Shange’s most beloved novel, Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo, is the story of three “colored girls,” three sisters and their mama from Charleston, South Carolina. Sassafrass, the oldest, is a poet and a weaver like her mother, gone north to college and living with other artists in Los Angeles, trying to weave a life out of her work, her man, her memories, and her dreams. Cypress, the dancer, leaves home to find new ways of moving and easing the contractions of her soul. Indigo, the youngest, is still a child of Charleston—with “too much of the South in her”—who lives in poetry, can talk to her dolls, and has a great gift of seeing the obvious magic of the world.

This story of three sisters making their way in an often hostile world is a touching celebration of womanhood.