African American dramatist Ntozake Shange (1948- ) has a rebellious desire to break away from Western theatrical traditions in order to open up new avenues for capturing the distinctive voice and experiences of African American women. This paper traces how Shange, in her first play for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf (1976) that won the Obie award, challenges traditional dramatic form, coining the term “choreopoem” to describe a new distinct theatrical form that synthesizes poetry, prose, song, music, dance, drama, and improvisational stage techniques. For Shange, this combination has a significant effect on her because she “learned about her identity as a woman through words, songs, and literature” and “she learned about her identity as an African through dance” (Peck 445). Indeed, the choreopoem enables Shange not only to achieve a truly independent position that is remarkably free from the "overwhelmingly shallow/ stilted & imitative" (Shange; spell 67) forms of American theater but also to establish a new space for the expression of black womanhood or what it means to be a black female.