This is not a book to read just to read plays by black women. Many of the plays in this collection push the boundaries of the conventions of theatre, while remaining astonishingly warm and human, not being coldly experimental. I had to read this as a class assignment, and I right away saw it as a token collection. That was an unfortunate first impression, and it was soon burned away by the intense experience of getting to know the plays. I learned that the nature of her very experience of her own identity as a black woman in America made it necessary for a playright like Adrienne Kennedy to innovate in highly effective and interesting ways. ( )