The Sweet Breath of Life: A Poetic Narrative of the African-American Family is a 2004 photographic poetic narrative by Ntozake Shange and the photography collective Kamoinge Inc.

Through poetic narrative and accompanying photographs, the book deals with various themes such as religion, identity, and representation.

[citation needed] Critical reception for The Sweet Breath of Life has been positive and reviewers have compared the work to that of Langston Hughes and Roy DeCarava.

[2][3][4] Black Issues Book Review judges some of the photos to be outdated and that some of the poems felt more like journalism than poetry, [clarification needed] but also that when the poems and photography worked together they were "powerfully made" and "breathtaking".

[6] The Tri-State Defender praised the project as "a wonderful blend of words and images that give definition to the beauty and wonder of contemporary African-American culture.