Source: Patrick McMullan / Getty

Renowned author and playwright Ntozake Shange has passed away. She was just 70 years old. 

Shange’s family announced her death via her official Twitter account. According to the Star Tribune, she had suffered multiple strokes in recent years, but she was on the mend healthwise, even creating new work. Nevertheless, she passed away in her sleep early Saturday (Oct. 27) morning.

Her most famed work was for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf. The play, which premiered in 1976 was adapted into a book a year later and then a Tyler Perry film, For Colored Girls, in 2010.

Shange was born Paulette L. Williams in Trenton, New Jersey in 1948. She graduated magna cum laude from Barnard College in NYC and earned a master’s degree from USC in Los Angeles.

Amongst an assortment of accomplishments and honors, she was also a founding poet of the Nuyorican Poets Café.

Rest in power, Ntozake Shange.

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Photo: Getty