Play Guide

2022–2023 SEASON

Blues for an
Alabama Sky
Inside

Blues for an Alabama Sky

by PEARL CLEAGE
directed by NICOLE A. WATSON
January 28 – March 12, 2023
THE PLAY Wurtele Thrust Stage
Synopsis • 4

THE PLAY
Synopsis, Setting and Characters • 4
Pearl Cleage on Blues for an Alabama Sky • 5
Responses to the Play • 7

THE PLAYWRIGHT
About Pearl Cleage • 8
Writing at the Crossroads:
A Conversation With Pearl Cleage • 9
THE PLAYWRIGHT In Her Own Words • 11
Pearl Cleage • 8
CULTURAL CONTEXT
Harlem: Black Dreams of the Promised Land • 13
People, Places and Things in the Play • 16

EDUCATION RESOURCES
Coming Soon

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Coming Soon

CULTURAL CONTEXT
The Great Migration to Harlem • 13

Guthrie Theater Play Guide

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2 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PLAY GUIDE BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY

“Everybody in Harlem is
singing the blues.”
– Angel Allen in Blues for an Alabama Sky

IMAGE: SCENIC DESIGN BY LAWRENCE E. MOTEN III

About This Guide

This play guide is designed to fuel your curiosity and deepen your understanding of a show’s
history, meaning and cultural relevance so you can make the most of your theatergoing
experience. You might be reading this because you fell in love with a show you saw at the
Guthrie. Maybe you want to read up on a play before you see it onstage. Or perhaps you’re a
fellow theater company doing research for an upcoming production. We’re glad you found your
way here, and we encourage you to dig in and mine the depths of this extraordinary story.

NOTE: Sections of this play guide may evolve throughout the run of the show, so check back
often for additional content.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Thanks for your interest in Blues for an Alabama Sky. Please direct literary inquiries to Resident
Dramaturg Carla Steen at [email protected].

3 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PLAY GUIDE BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY

THE PLAY

SETTING
“It is the summer of 1930. Harlem, New
York. The creative euphoria of the
Renaissance has given way to the harsher
realities of the Great Depression. Young
Reverend Adam Clayton Powell is feeding
the hungry and preaching an activist
gospel at Abyssinian Baptist Church.
Black Nationalist visionary Marcus Garvey
has been discredited and deported.
Birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger is
opening a new family planning clinic on
126th Street and the doctors at Harlem
Hospital are scrambling to care for a
population whose most deadly disease
is poverty. But, far from Harlem, African
American expatriate extraordinaire,
Josephine Baker, sips champagne in her
dressing room at the Folies Bergère and
laughs like a free woman.”

Playwright Pearl Cleage

“Time and Place” from the published version of Blues
for an Alabama Sky

ACT ONE
REHEARSAL PHOTO: LAMAR JEFFERSON AND KIMBERLY MARABLE (AARON THOMAS)
Scene One Sunday, 3 a.m.
Scene Two Sunday, late afternoon
Scene Three Wednesday, late

Synopsis
afternoon
Scene Four Sunday, evening
Scene Five Friday, evening

In a Harlem apartment building, four close-knit friends ACT TWO

have developed a warm, nurturing relationship, sharing in Scene One Two weeks later, Sunday,
each other’s aspirations and challenges. Angel, a struggling afternoon
nightclub singer, is the temporary roommate of Guy, a Scene Two Two weeks later
costume designer who dreams of creating beautiful dresses Scene Three The next day
for Josephine Baker, a popular performer in Paris. Across Scene Four The next day
the hall is Delia, a social worker diligently trying to open a Scene Five Two weeks later
Margaret Sanger Family Planning Clinic in Harlem. Sam, a
physician at Harlem Hospital, doesn’t live in the building, but CHARACTERS
his blooming romance with Delia and friendship with Angel Angel Allen, a former backup singer at
and Guy make him a regular addition to this found family. the Cotton Club
Guy Jacobs, a costume designer at the
Their lives are thrown into disarray with the arrival of Leland,
Cotton Club
a conservative newcomer to Harlem who is smitten with
Angel. Even though Angel is put off by his narrow beliefs, Delia Patterson, a social worker on staff at
she encourages the relationship because she believes a Margaret Sanger Family Planning Clinic
Leland will give her a secure future. When Angel discovers Sam Thomas, a doctor at Harlem Hospital
she is pregnant, she makes a decision that leads to Leland Cunningham, a six-week resident
devastating consequences for everyone. of Harlem, from Alabama

4 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PLAY GUIDE BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY

THE PLAY

Pearl Cleage on
Blues for an Alabama Sky
My husband and I had just attended a production of my
play Flyin’ West at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in
Montgomery, Alabama. The day I was scheduled to give a
short presentation and engage the audience in some Q&A
happened to be the day the Ku Klux Klan was marching
around the state capital a few miles away to protest the
Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and as I recall, I did a little bit
of both. Later that night, we were driving back to Atlanta through the
Alabama night, and the sky was full of the kind of bright stars you never
see in the city. It was so beautiful, I opened the window and hung my
head out to see as much of that sky as I could. I found myself wondering
what it would be like to leave a place where you could see the sky
like this and journey to New York City, where neon lights often trump
starlight from our vantage point in the middle of all those skyscrapers.
I thought how much a person might miss that sky. That was the
beginning of the idea that grew into Blues for an Alabama Sky. …

The story is set in 1930, but it isn’t about 1930. It’s about truth and honor
and love and fear and friendship, topics which don’t grow old. Writers
are always writing about the complexities of being human. Time and
place are merely the specific backdrops in which we chose to place
our explorations. If we get it right about the people, the question of
relevance is moot.

Interview with Jacqueline E. Lawton

“An Interview With Pearl Cleage Part Two,” 2011

When I set Blues in the middle of the Harlem Renaissance,

I realized we always write about it as a period of wonderful
creative energy … people were in an opportunistic moment
making great work. But once the stock market crashed, a lot of
that money dried up and lots of artists were in worse times —
especially Black artists. I was more interested in placing a story,
I realized, in that time when a lot of that hope and artistry had
dried up and how different people reacted to it. Angel responds
with absolute fear. Guy’s response is to pursue a moment
beyond the present and to become a citizen of the world.

Interview with Shelby Krick

“In Conversation With Playwright Pearl Cleage & Director Ron OJ Parson,” Court Theatre
blog, January 15, 2017

5 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PLAY GUIDE BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY

What was it like to be Angel? What was it like to be Guy?
What was it like to be all of those people and realize …
they were dealing with contraception, that the Garveyites
were saying, “That is genocide. No Black women should
be using contraception. We should be having as many
babies as we can.” …

Sometimes there are issues that women have been dealing with for
generations, but they haven’t shown up in the literature because
men are writing the plays. Men are writing the novels, and they
have different issues that they’re dealing with. But for me, if I
can be reading about another period and just see it bump up
against the issues that we are dealing with now as women, it’s
just wonderful, because then you can bring that conversation
into the light where it’s only been in the smaller spaces that
we inhabit when it’s just us. …

I get most of my history through stories. My husband can

name all the wars in chronological order and all the presidents
in chronological order. My mind does not work that way. So the
history that I get, I get from stories, from plays, from novels. I’ve
always been that way, so there are periods that are of great interest
to me, not necessarily because I want to write a history play, but
because the Harlem Renaissance has always been so appealing to me.
I wish I had been there. When I wrote Blues for an Alabama Sky, I was
thinking about the Renaissance, but then I said, “We always kind of glory
in the Renaissance. What happened right after that? What happened
when the stock market crashed?” But it grew out of my interest in the
Harlem Renaissance.

Interview with Jordan Ealey and Leticia Ridley

“Black Women Got Something to Say: A Conversation With Pearl Cleage,” “Daughters of
Lorraine” podcast, July 27, 2022

I haven’t seen a production of [Blues for an Alabama Sky] in

almost 20 years. I tend to not follow the productions because you
can get seduced by your own work that’s done rather than create
the new one, which is scarier because it isn’t done. I did reexamine
it to make sure I felt that it stood up after 20 years, and it does.
Some of the issues that I was trying to grapple with in the play
are still very present in American life; birth control and issues of
homophobia are still very alive. Also, the heart of this play is about
the importance of telling the truth. You can’t be a good friend to
someone and lie. You can’t tell someone you love them and not
mean it. That’s not something that goes in and out of style.

Interview with Kelundra Smith

“Blues for an Alabama Sky Celebrates Its 20th Birthday at the Alliance Theatre,”
American Theatre, April 16, 2015

6 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PLAY GUIDE BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY

THE PLAY

Responses to the Play

Cleage isn’t afraid to wear her theater geekery on What stands out in Cleage’s beautifully written play
her sleeve, stuffing an old-fashioned melodrama is that it makes that distant time seem inescapably
with sly winks to Ibsen and Tennessee Williams, modern, and with its finely drawn characters and
but the issues she addresses [in Blues for an a plot that simmers steadily until it explodes like a
Alabama Sky] are freshly resonant in a new dream deferred, Blues for an Alabama Sky is one
depression rife with social conservatism. of the most satisfying dramas onstage in New York
right now.
Claire Armitstead
“Harlem Renaissance Drama Is a Tale for Our Times,” The Pete Hempstead
Guardian, October 5, 2022 “Dreams Deferred and Fulfilled in Blues for an Alabama Sky,”
TheaterMania, February 21, 2020

Pearl Cleage’s 1995 [Blues for an Alabama Sky],

set in 1930s Harlem, is hefty in subject matter, with
debates about gayness, family planning and racial
injustice. Yet this is an evening of individual voices,
raggedy with poverty but bold with hope. It flies.

Susannah Clapp Blues paints the truth of living while Black in America
“The week in theatre,” The Guardian, October 9, 2022
without pulling any punches. It plays perfectly for
this era of regressive attacks on women’s rights and
eroding civil liberties. Even with consideration for
the abortion subplot, Cleage could easily update
the play to modern time without having to change
too much around.

Juan Michael Porter II

The cynical might think Pearl Cleage’s play had been “Review: Blues for an Alabama Sky at Theatre Row,” Exeunt NYC,

expressly written to address the overriding issues in February 24, 2020

today’s USA — abortion and contraception rights, gun

control, homophobia, racism. But the cynical would
be wrong, as Blues for an Alabama Sky was written in
1995. What is notable is its timely scheduling by the
National Theatre.

Cleage has written a period play, set in the Harlem

I've rarely seen a play in which the imprint of
Renaissance during Prohibition, that works as a
identification and affection for the protagonists
tribute to the major players of that movement. Their
is so strong and so involving. It's a work that
names are bandied about by the characters as their
makes you want to lean in, holding your breath
associates and colleagues — the poet Langston
as their fortunes shift and stir, hoping for the
Hughes, the birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger, the
best but somehow always fearing the worst.
cabaret star Josephine Baker. None appears in person,
but they and their radical notions are in the air. Sarah Crompton
“Blues for an Alabama Sky at the National Theatre — review,”
Helen Hawkins WhatsOnStage, October 5, 2022
“Blues for an Alabama Sky, National Theatre review,” The Arts Desk,
October 22, 2022

7 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PLAY GUIDE BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY

THE
PLAY
PLAYWRIGHT
FEATURE

About
Pearl Cleage
Pearl Cleage is an Atlanta-based writer
whose plays include Angry, Raucous and
Shamelessly Gorgeous, Flyin’ West, Blues for
an Alabama Sky and Bourbon at the Border,
which were commissioned by Alliance
Theatre where Cleage is Distinguished
Artist in Residence.

She is also the author of A Song for Coretta, written in

2007 while the Cosby Professor in Women’s Studies at
Spelman College, and The Nacirema Society…, which
was commissioned by Alabama Shakespeare Festival
and premiered in 2010. Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama
Sky recently received an award-winning production
at London’s National Theatre, directed by Lynette
Linton. Her plays have been performed at Arena
Stage, Hartford Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival,
PHOTO: PEARL CLEAGE (STEPHANIE ELEY)
Huntington Theatre Company, Long Wharf Theatre,
Just Us Theatre Company, True Colors Theatre,
Bushfire Theatre, Intiman Theatre, The Black Rep which premiered at the National Black Theatre
and 7 Stages. Festival in 2008. Cleage is an accomplished novelist,
with her New York Times bestseller What Looks Like
Cleage is also an accomplished performance artist, Crazy on an Ordinary Day being chosen for Oprah’s
often working with her husband, writer Zaron W. Book Club. Cleage has been awarded grants from the
Burnett, Jr., in their Live at Club Zebra! performance National Endowment for the Arts, Fulton County Arts
installation. They have performed at the National Black Council, Georgia Council for the Arts, Atlanta Bureau
Arts Festival, National Black Theatre Festival and of Cultural Affairs and The Coca-Cola Foundation.
colleges across the country. They also collaborated Among her many awards is a 2008 NAACP Image
with performance artists Idris Ackamoor and Award for Fiction and a 2022 Lifetime Achievement
Rhodessa Jones on the script for The Love Project, Award from the Dramatists Guild.

Through [her] plays, [Pearl] Cleage seeks to bring us to grips with our American past and help us
understand and acknowledge its impact on present conditions, especially with regard to issues of race
and gender. She examines great historical events and movements, not through the eyes of leaders
and celebrities, but through the experiences of the ordinary people who lived them. The issue at hand
and its relationship to our actions remains the focus rather than the impersonation of an iconic figure.
Cleage’s interest is in helping us face our responsibility for being part of the flow of history.

Freda Scott Giles

“The Motion of Herstory: Three Plays by Pearl Cleage,” African American Review, Vol. 31, No. 4, 1997

8 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PLAY GUIDE BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY

THE
PLAY
PLAYWRIGHT
FEATURE

Writing at the Crossroads:

A Conversation With Pearl Cleage
By Johanna Buch

From her days wandering library stacks in Detroit to

becoming Atlanta’s first Poet Laureate in 2020, Playwright
Pearl Cleage has never stopped writing. She discovered
the joy of storytelling at a young age and has spent her
career at the intersection of artistry and activism — a
place she didn’t choose but chose to embrace. It was
an honor to interview Cleage, whose answers offer
a beautiful look into her creative upbringing and the
impetus for writing Blues for an Alabama Sky, which
continues to engage audiences across the country.

JOHANNA BUCH: When did you JB: Give us a peek into your demands, but once the script is
know you wanted to become writing process. What do you need done, you become part of a group
a writer? to create your best work? of artists who bring the play to
life. You also have the great joy of
PEARL CLEAGE: I’ve always known PC: I need a room where I can be sitting in the theater and hearing
I was a writer. I started by telling alone with my thoughts. It doesn’t the audience respond how you
stories to my older sister when I have to be a big room — just a hoped they would. There is no
was 3 and keeping little notebooks room where nothing else happens better feeling.
with story and character ideas but my writing. I like to play music
once she taught me to read and when I write, anything from Bob JB: In addition to being a prolific
write at age 5. I was one of those Marley to Joni Mitchell. I burn lots writer, you’re also an activist. How
kids who organized my cousins of candles. In the summer, I bring in have these identities fueled each
into a troupe of performers during flowers from my husband’s garden. other throughout your career?
any and all holidays. I even adapted I also need a room with a door
Chicken Little in the fourth grade because I always read my plays PC: I grew up in a very political
and took the performance to other out loud to see how the words will family. We were always involved in
classes at my school! My family sound and be sure I leave enough the struggles of African American
always encouraged me to write, space for the actors to breathe! people to be free. The family
and our house was full of books. published a weekly newspaper
I got my first library card to the JB: You’ve written plays, called The Illustrated News and
Detroit Public Library at age 6, and novels, essays, children’s books founded the Michigan Freedom
my mother told the librarian I was and more. What excites you Now Party. I always saw my work
allowed to check out any book about playwriting? as part of that struggle. I still do.
that interested me. This gave me
the freedom to leave the children’s PC: Writing plays is the best of all JB: In your 2015 interview with
area and roam about the entire possible worlds. It allows you the American Theatre magazine, you
library at will. solitary time that serious writing said that Harlem Renaissance tales

9 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PLAY GUIDE BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY

were your childhood bedtime JB: The play’s ending has changed preservation make her friendships
stories. How did they influence since it first premiered. What impossible to maintain.
your work — Blues for an Alabama insight can you offer?
Sky in particular? JB: The themes of racism,
PC: The ending we now use is sexism, reproductive rights and
PC: My mother was a great admirer the original ending! The new homophobia addressed in Blues
of Langston Hughes, and she often gentleman caller stopping the still resonate deeply today. Why is
read from his autobiography, The same way Leland does shows us intersectionality important to you
Big Sea. The stories of his Harlem that Angel has not really changed. in your writing?
adventures fascinated me. I loved She even uses the same line: “Hot
his descriptions of rent parties, enough for you?” She has only one PC: As an African American
nightclubs and friendships formed way of moving through the world, woman, I live at the crossroads
on the stoops of apartment and that is to find a man to take of racism and sexism. That is not
buildings. I wanted to be part care of her. She wishes it could be what I would choose, but it’s what
of the Harlem Renaissance but Guy, but as she reminds him, he’s I was born into. When I write, I
realized I was too late. Writing not a “straight man” and cannot explore characters who, like me,
Blues for an Alabama Sky allowed be her savior. During the play’s find themselves confronted with
me to revisit those childhood first production, the budget didn’t other people’s ideas of who they
dreams of living and writing in allow for that final character, so I are and who they should be. I am
Harlem — and maybe even being a hoped Angel sitting alone would saddened to see that reproductive
friend of Langston Hughes. convey the same message. But rights are still under assault in our
the ambiguity of her last moments country. Homophobia, racism and
JB: When and where did the initial were sometimes misinterpreted sexism are still huge problems.
spark for Blues originate? Did as remorse, and Angel has no These characters are struggling
you imagine the characters first, remorse. She is always about her to live their lives as free people.
the vibrant Harlem setting or own survival. With the original The question becomes: What does
something else? ending restored, there is no way to freedom mean to each one, and
see her as a changed woman. She what are they prepared to do to
PC: My husband and I were driving is who she is. get it?
back to Atlanta from Montgomery
late one night. It was dark, but the JB: We recently produced Sweat JB: What will we see next from
sky was filled with stars. Looking and A Raisin in the Sun at the Pearl Cleage?
out the window at that beautiful Guthrie, and both plays amplified
Alabama sky made me wonder the voices of Black characters with PC: I am working on a play
what it would be like to leave a big dreams. In Blues, we see Black commissioned by Ford’s Theatre in
small town like Tuskegee, where characters who are also pursuing Washington, D.C., titled Something
that sky is always available to you, dreams — some of which are fully Moving: A Meditation on Maynard
and find yourself in the middle of realized by the end of the play. that focuses on Maynard
New York City where the buildings Why was it important to show Jackson, Atlanta’s first African
and the neon block out so much these dreams coming true? American mayor.
of that night sky. That’s where
the character of Leland was born. PC: I wanted to create characters JB: Exciting! Anything else you’d
The other characters were already who had the same challenges all like to share?
part of the Harlem demimonde, human beings face. What do we
and their friendships were already want? What are we prepared to do PC: I am delighted to have Blues
established. When Angel’s fear of to get it? Guy’s dreams come true, for an Alabama Sky at the Guthrie.
being “a broke old woman” makes and he has not betrayed his friends I hope your audiences find in these
her invite Leland into their circle, or his own sense of right and characters some people they want
he is not ready. His homophobia wrong. Angel’s dreams don’t come to spend a few hours with and
and small-town, traditional true, and her fear of poverty drives that the journey of the play sparks
Christianity make it impossible for her into a relationship with Leland discussion of where we are as a
him to understand and embrace that ends tragically for everybody. I country, where we’ve been and
these big-city people, although always wish that Angel could have where we’re going. I also hope, in
Angel’s resemblance to his late changed, but that’s not who she is. Doc’s words, that it allows us all to
wife makes him keep trying. Her fear and fierce need for self- “let the good times roll!”

10 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PLAY GUIDE BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY

THE
PLAY
PLAYWRIGHT
FEATURE

In Her Own Words

I grew up on the West Side of Detroit, Michigan. My family had already been
there for two generations when I was born. … My father, Rev. Albert Cleage,
was very active in the Freedom Struggle (the civil rights movement), and I
don’t remember a time when I wasn't going to meetings, handing out flyers
and participating in picket lines and election day activities. It was a big part of
our lives. Being an active part of the community we lived in was simply part of
who we were as a family.

My grandfather was the first African American city physician in Detroit and helped found a Black
hospital. My other grandfather came North during the Great Migration to take Henry Ford up on
his offer of a job for anybody who wanted to work, and he kept that job for 40 years. He was
also a founding trustee of Plymouth Congregational Church, the city's first African American
congregational church, where he remained an active member until he died. My grandmothers
were lucky to be able to stay home to raise their children and not have to do outside work,
although both might have preferred it. One wanted to be a concert singer and one had very much
wanted to go to college.

I enjoyed politics and often accompanied my father to political meetings at our church and
around the city. My stepfather, Henry Cleage, and two of my other uncles, Hugh Cleage and Dr.
Louis Cleage, owned and operated a printing plant where my family published a weekly called
The Illustrated News. The issues of the day were analyzed and strategies for change were offered,
including voter registration, economic boycotts and the founding of the Freedom Now Party.
My father ran for governor of Michigan at the top of the party's statewide ticket while I was in
high school. …

My family believed in Black Nationalism, and I grew up seeing myself in that way. We lived
separately within Detroit's Black community by choice. My entire world was African American
at every level, and it never seemed strange or tragic to me. Detroit didn't have the visible signs
of legal segregation that we saw in the South, but discriminatory housing patterns made it easy
for communities to be all one race or another. Mine was all Black. Black teachers, Black doctors,
Black factory workers, Black bookstore owners, Black lawyers, Black elected officials. Anything
we needed, we were able to find Black people who could provide that service. I later went to
historically Black colleges, published my first books with independent Black presses and built a
reputation as a playwright working within the national network of African American theaters.

Aside from my political education, one of the great gifts my family gave me was a real respect for
writing and writers. They supported the young writers who were revolutionizing American poetry
and were always encouraging my desire to be a writer, although I think they worried about how I
would make a living at it. My parents always had lots of books around, and I was encouraged and
allowed to read anything that caught my eye from Jean-Paul Sartre to Frantz Fanon. Langston
Hughes was my mother's favorite, so I read a lot of his work when I was very young. It made me
see how exciting a writer's life could be. I couldn't wait!

Interview with Morgan Mims

“Making a Life in the Theatre,” HowlRound Theatre Commons, June 4, 2016

11 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PLAY GUIDE BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY

As a child of the Black Arts Movement and
the Woodstock Generation, I still believe
that theater has a ritual power to call forth
the spirits, illuminate the darkness and
speak the truth to people.
From the preface to Flyin’ West and Other Plays
Theatre Communications Group, 1999

I grew up feeling that the spoken word My response to the oppression

is so much more powerful sometimes I face is to name it, describe it,
because everybody can’t read, everybody
doesn’t like to read. People get out of
analyze it, protest it and propose
high school and say, “Oh, I never have solutions to it as loud[ly] as I
to read another book,” which of course
possibly can every time I get the
makes those of us who are writers
cringe a little bit. But those of us who chance. I purposely people my
are playwrights get to cheat because plays with fast-talking, quick-
they don’t have to read the play. What
thinking Black women since the
we have to do is figure out a way to get
them into the theater, and then we get theater is, for me, one of the few
to tell them the story. That’s really what places where we have a chance
drew me to theater; you can tell stories
to people in a way that is so ancient and to get an uninterrupted word
accessible because sitting around the in edgewise.
campfire, really, is what we do. We turn
From her essay “Fast-Talking, Quick-
out the lights, we sit among the people in
Thinking Black Women”
our community, we have a light that we
Women in American Theatre by Helen Krich Chinoy and
look at and somebody tells us a story. You Linda Walsh Jenkins, 2006
really can’t get more ancient than that.

That’s what playwriting felt like to me, like

you could get people to come together
and then talk to them. … When I was Flyin’ West was the first play I ever did that
about 11 years old, the touring company was historical. I had one of those experiences
of A Raisin in the Sun from the Negro that I never have, where I heard a character
Ensemble Company came through speak to me. I heard a complete monologue
Detroit, and my mother took me. I was so where a woman talked about surviving
moved and energized and just excited by slavery and having 10 children sold away and
what Lorraine Hansberry was doing. setting out to walk West. I wanted to honor
Interview with Jordan Ealey and the fact that I heard this voice. I had been
Leticia Ridley doing this long enough to recognize a sign.
“Black Women Got Something to Say: A Conversation
Interview with Kelundra Smith
With Pearl Cleage,” “Daughters of Lorraine” podcast,
“Blues for an Alabama Sky Celebrates Its 20th Birthday at
July 27, 2022
the Alliance Theatre,” American Theatre, April 16, 2015

12 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PLAY GUIDE BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY

PLAY FEATURE

Harlem Tenement in Summer, 1939 (Sid Grossman)

ALL PHOTOS: FROM HARLEM: A CENTURY IN IMAGES PUBLISHED BY STUDIO MUSEUM HARLEM

Harlem: Black Dreams

of the Promised Land By Faye M. Price
Dramaturg

Pearl Cleage’s contemporary classic Blues for an Alabama Sky is a work of historical fiction,
meaning the story, while fictionalized, takes place in a very real past. The play is set in
Harlem, New York City, in the summer of 1930. It is a time of great transition for African
Americans, from the creative exhilaration of the Harlem Renaissance to the despair of the
Great Depression to the migration from the Jim Crow South to cities in the North.

From roughly the 1910s to the Georgia, Louisiana, Kentucky, left because they wanted their
mid-1970s, approximately six Arkansas, Florida, Tennessee and children to have better educational
million Black Southerners left their North Carolina made the quiet and and economic opportunities than
homes and relocated to Northern, courageous decision to pick up their own. And they left because
Midwestern and Western states their belongings and move to cities the stifling conditions of Jim
in a mass movement known they had only heard about or seen Crow laws made living in the
as the Great Migration. It was in mail-order catalogs. South untenable. The racial caste
one of the largest migrations system of Jim Crow was conceived
of people in the 20th century. They left because the threat of to disenfranchise African
Sharecroppers from Mississippi, racial violence was palpable. Americans and reverse political
tobacco workers from Virginia Across the South, between 1889 and economic gains made during
and millions of others from small and 1929, someone was hanged or Reconstruction. Under “separate
towns and villages in Alabama, burned alive every four days. They but equal” Jim Crow laws, the

13 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PLAY GUIDE BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY

Above: Facades, 1938, featuring
storefronts at 422-424 Lenox Avenue
(Aaron Siskind); Above right: Peace
Meals, 1937 (Aaron Siskind); Far right:
Crowds cheer boxer Joe Louis and his
wife, Marva Trotter Lewis, as they take
a stroll in Harlem, 1935 (unknown);
Right: Grocery Store, 1940, featuring
a storefront at 645 Lenox Avenue
(Aaron Siskind)

lives of African Americans were near the tip of Manhattan. By 1930, construction boom. Motivated by
legally relegated to the status of Harlem was internationally known the creation of a new subway line,
second-class citizens. as the largest Black community in greedy speculators overbuilt poor-
the U.S. It was the cultural capital quality housing and overestimated
The Great Migration serves as the for Black Americans; it was the rental values. The resulting
backdrop in Cleage’s bittersweet Black mecca of the New Negro. abandoned properties pressured
play Blues for an Alabama Sky. desperate building owners to make
Angel and Guy would have been The Wecquaesgeek tribe of the their apartments available to Black
part of that migration, having Wappani people were the first residents while also overcharging
left a life of sexual exploitation at inhabitants of what we now know them. In the 1920s, many West
Miss Lillie’s in Savannah, Georgia, as Harlem. By 1930, Harlem had Indian migrants began to make
and fleeing North with dreams of a rich ethnic history. After the their way to Harlem as well.
a better future. The cities of the Dutch settlements established in
North beckoned millions, with New 1658, Harlem became home to With the influx of newcomers
York City, Detroit, Chicago and Los Irish, German, Italian and Jewish from the South and immigrants
Angeles being the most popular immigrants. The conversion of from the Caribbean, plus native
destinations. In New York City, for Harlem into a Black neighborhood New Yorkers, Harlem’s population
African Americans, the place to be is widely believed to have begun of Black residents developed
was Harlem, a large neighborhood in 1904 following a speculative into a thriving community and

14 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PLAY GUIDE BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY

Harlem in the 1930s, ca. 1930s (unknown), featuring 125th Street just east of Seventh Avenue looking west.
The marquee signs of the Victoria and Apollo theaters are visible in the distance.

grew exponentially, expanding who had already made the trip North. Even the choice of a church
from 84,000 in 1920 to more North. The jobs found in New York could be made without familial
than 200,000 in 1930 with fewer were menial but paid better than pressure. In Blues for an Alabama
than 25% being born in New the low wages in the South, and Sky, Leland is a newcomer to
York. There were more Blacks in public schools for their children Harlem who holds tightly to
Harlem in 1930 than the combined were a substantial improvement his Southern and conservative
Black populations of Birmingham, over those in Southern climes. religious values. His convictions
Memphis and St. Louis. lead to an inevitable conflict of
The mixture of native New Yorkers, social mores between himself
For many, Harlem was the dream newer migrants from the South and the found family that Angel,
capital of Black America. New and Caribbean immigrants was Guy, Delia and Sam have built
arrivals would often land at Penn not always smooth. There was in the North.
Station and take the A train an inherent tension between
uptown where they would be the authoritarian control under Blues for an Alabama Sky presents
greeted by friends and relatives Jim Crow as experienced in the many questions about dreams:
rural South and the relatively How much do you risk to fulfill
individualistic behaviors found in your dreams? When is it time to
the large, anonymous cities of the give up on your dreams? In the
There were more Blacks
North. Without the full force of 1920s and 1930s, Harlem was a
in Harlem in 1930 than the
family surrounding them, migrants place of promise for many. For
combined Black populations
got their first taste of anonymity in some, the dream died; for others, it
of Birmingham, Memphis the city. Values that were held so was deferred. But for many years,
and St. Louis. dearly at home within an extended Harlem was the place where Black
family could be relaxed in the dreams could come true.

15 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PLAY GUIDE BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY

CULTURAL
PLAY FEATURE
CONTEXT

People, Places and

Things in the Play
PEOPLE
Josephine Baker (1906–1975) Richard Bruce Nugent (1906–1987)
An American-born dancer, singer, An author, artist, actor, dancer
actress and activist. She emigrated and popular personality during
to France in the 1920s and found the Harlem Renaissance more
great success with her jaw-dropping commonly known as Bruce Nugent.
performances and skimpy costumes. Although there were many artists
During World War II, she assisted who were gay in Harlem at that
the French Resistance. In the 1960s, time, Nugent was among only a few
she was active in the American civil rights movement who were publicly out. His art explored Black identity
and refused to perform for segregated audiences. and same-sex desire.
At the time of the play, Baker was one of Paris’ most
popular and highly paid nightclub performers. Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
(1908–1972)
Marcus Garvey (1887–1940) The influential pastor of Harlem’s
A Jamaican-born leader, political famed Abyssinian Baptist Church
activist, publisher, journalist, who became an influential figure
entrepreneur and orator who during the Depression. Against his
was the founder and first father’s wishes, he married chorus
president of the Universal Negro girl Isabel Washington. Powell
Improvement Association and began preaching at the church in 1930 and took over
African Communities League. the church’s leadership after his father’s retirement
Ideologically, the organization was a Black Nationalist/ in 1937. Powell was elected to Congress in 1945 and
pan-African movement that was committed to the represented Harlem in that capacity until 1970.
diaspora migrating back to Africa. Garvey and his
followers, called Garveyites, believed that birth control John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937)
was a form of genocide for the Black race and were A billionaire who continues to rank
passionately opposed to Margaret Sanger’s birth as one of the wealthiest men of
control clinic in Harlem. modern times. He was the co-
founder of Standard Oil and helped
Langston Hughes (1901–1967) shape the oil industry and the
A poet, novelist and social activist practice of corporate philanthropy.
who was considered the Poet
Laureate of the Harlem Renaissance.
Hughes moved to Harlem in 1921. Margaret Sanger (1879–1966)
At the time of the play, his debut An American birth control activist,
novel, Not Without Laughter, was writer and nurse. She opened the
published, which won a Harmon first birth control clinic in the U.S.
Gold Medal for Literature. It is believed that Hughes and is considered the founder
led the entirety of his life as a closeted gay man. of Planned Parenthood. Sanger
believed that in order for women
to have more equal footing in
society and to lead healthier lives, they needed to
be able to determine when to bear children. With
support from the Amsterdam News, Abyssinian

16 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PLAY GUIDE BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY

Baptist Church, Urban League, W.E.B. Du Bois and establishment with the rare exception for Black
others, she opened the Harlem family planning clinic in celebrities like Ethel Waters and Bill Robinson. The
1930, which remained open until 1937. In more recent original club closed in 1940.
years, Sanger’s belief in eugenics based on class
has been denounced.

Fats Waller (1904–1943)

An American stride pianist,
organist, vocalist and composer
known for songs such as “Ain’t
Misbehavin’,” “Honeysuckle Rose”
and “I Can’t Give You Anything but
Love, Baby.” In the 1930s, Waller
ranked at the top among African
American entertainers.

Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) Folies Bergère

An American educator, author and A popular nightclub in Paris that opened in 1869 as
orator. He was the leader of the a music hall. It reached the height of its fame from
Tuskegee Normal and Industrial the 1890s until World War II. Productions included
Institute (later known as the a series of sumptuous and grandiose musicals
Tuskegee Institute) for more than featuring beautiful young women scantily clad in
30 years and one of the most gaudy costumes against exotic backdrops. It is still
influential Black leaders of his time. open for business.
His philosophy was one of self-help, racial solidarity,
moderation and accommodation as strategies for Hamilton Lodge
social and economic injustice. Washington’s viewpoint An event space located at 280 West 155th Street,
was diametrically opposed to those of scholar W.E.B. also known as the Rockland Palace, that was founded
Du Bois, who advocated for political action and a civil by the Grand Order of Odd Fellows, Lodge 710. It
rights agenda. was initially a space for affluent African Americans,
providing a home for political events, pageants and
lectures. In 1869, Harlem’s annual drag balls began in
that space, flourishing by the time of the play. Later in
PLACES the 1920s, the Masquerade and Civic Ball became the
most popular gay event in town. As popularity grew,
the balls attracted more than just queer patrons. In
1937, the ball hosted nearly 8,000 guests.

Harlem
A district of New York City located in the northern
part of Manhattan. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Harlem
Renaissance centered the area with the vibrancy
of African American life and culture. There was a
proliferation of poetry, dance, theater, music and
visual arts during this period, and the night life was
PHOTO: CAB CALLOWAY FOUNDATION
in full swing.
Cotton Club
Harlem’s largest and nationally recognized nightclub Harlem Hospital
where everyone who was anyone — movie stars, A modest, three-story health care facility that opened
gangsters, Broadway performers — wanted to spend in 1887 and originally served as a holding place
an evening. Featuring bootleg liquor and musical for patients to be moved to Bellevue Hospital. The
revues, the club launched the careers of many Black hospital relocated to a larger space in 1907 to help
entertainers of the era, including Duke Ellington, accommodate more citizens in the neighborhood
Bessie Smith and the Nicholas Brothers, among and always offered a sense of pride to Harlem’s Black
others. The Cotton Club was initially a whites-only community. In 1919, the first Black physician was hired

17 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PLAY GUIDE BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY

by the hospital. At the beginning of 1929, only seven of Tuskegee
the 64 physicians and surgeons on the in-service staff A small city in Macon County,
at Harlem Hospital were African American. Alabama, and an iconic location
for African American history. It
is home to the famed Tuskegee
Institute, which hosted both the
work of George Washington
Carver and the infamous Tuskegee
Syphilis Experiments. It is also
known for the Tuskegee Airmen,
the first African American airmen
in the U.S. military.

THINGS
Lafayette Theatre
A live theater venue located at 132nd Street and Amsterdam News
Seventh Avenue in Harlem that operated from 1912 A weekly, Black-owned newspaper serving New York
to 1951. In 1913, it became the first major theater to City that was founded in 1909. In the 1930s, the paper
desegregate, allowing African American theatergoers became a prominent voice for Black Americans.
to sit in orchestra seats instead of the balcony. The
theater served as the home for the Lafayette Players, Demimonde
an all-Black acting troupe, from 1915 to 1932. A group of people considered to be on the fringe of
respectable society.

Great Depression
A period of worldwide economic downturn between
1929 and 1939. Cities around the world were hit hard
with devastating consequences, and people greatly
suffered from both emotional and financial trauma. By
December 1930, the Bank of United States (a private
bank in New York City) collapsed. At the time, it was
the fourth largest bank in the country. This moment
was widely considered to be the event that started the
Great Depression.
PHOTO: BETTMANN ARCHIVE

Savoy Ballroom Literati

An important center for jazz music and dance in People interested in literature or the arts.
Harlem. On any given night during its heyday in the
1920s and 1930s, you could find up to 5,000 people Prohibition
doing the Lindy Hop, Flying Charleston, Shorty George An era in the U.S. that began in 1920 and lasted
or any number of fashionable swing dances. The Savoy until 1933. During this era, the 18th Amendment
had two bandstands so there would always be two enforced legal prevention of selling, manufacturing
bands at the ready, guaranteeing the music played and transporting alcoholic beverages. Both federal
nonstop. It was one of the first ballrooms in the U.S. and national authorities had difficulty enforcing
to integrate Black and white patrons. The ballroom Prohibition, giving rise to “bathtub gin” (amateur
eventually closed and was demolished in 1959. homemade spirits) bootleggers (someone who makes
or sells illegal spirits) and gangsters.
Sugar Hill
An area in Harlem that became a popular place Sunday Promenade
for wealthy and prominent African Americans to A moment when men and women dressed in their
live during the Harlem Renaissance. The nickname finest attire would stroll down Harlem’s Seventh
reflected the “sweet life” of its residents. Avenue after church, feeling and looking good.

18 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PLAY GUIDE BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY