Blues for an Alabama Sky

A few days later, Delia receives a gift from her aunt: a bright dress that is different from her usual practical style. Meanwhile, Angel returns to Guy’s apartment and looks around until she finds a hidden bottle of liquor, which she drinks and then hides again when Guy gets home. She and Guy discuss work––Guy has found a job costuming chorus girls at a dive bar, but Angel has yet to find any job openings for a singer. She realizes the Depression means there is no work for anyone, and wandering Harlem in search of work only showed her how desperate everyone is.

Guy confesses that he ran into Nick, and Nick suggested Angel work for a friend of his named Tony. Guy suspects that Tony is in fact a pimp, but Angel insists Nick wouldn’t do that to her. She makes her mind to audition for the job. Guy tries to dissuade her, but he relents when she points out that she indulges his fantasy of going to Paris. The two of them reflect on their lives in Harlem, where they moved together from their hometown in Savannah, Georgia.

Guy informs Angel that Langston Hughes is back in town, and they make plans to attend a party for the poet that a mutual friend is hosting. Angel complains that she is always the only woman at these parties, where most of the guests are gay men, so Guy suggests they invite Delia. Angel goes to Delia’s apartment to invite her to the party. While there, Angel tells Delia that she won’t be needing typing lessons. She also tells Delia that Guy lost his job the same night Angel did. When Delia assures Angel that Josephine Baker will write to Guy soon, Angel dismisses this possibility. She explains that Guy is “a dreamer.” He has been writing to Josephine Baker for a year, but she has never written back, and Angel doubts she ever will.

Delia declines the invitation to the party because Sam is coming over, and she is surprised when Angel mentions that Sam has feelings for Delia. Angel sees Delia’s new dress, which Delia explains is from her aunt, and Angel persuades Delia to lend it to Angel for her audition. Angel notes how tired Delia looks and begins to massage Delia’s head, explaining that “a Voodoo woman” taught Angel how to do this in Savannah. Delia relaxes. Angel recalls her time as a sex worker, when men would pay her to massage them. 

Angel returns to Guy’s apartment, where she and Guy prepare for the party. Eventually, they depart. Sam arrives to help Delia prepare to meet with the deacon about the clinic. He is exhausted from working double shifts. Delia suggests he “cut back on [his] nightlife,” but Sam insists that parties and fun remind him that there is more to life than the hospital.

Sam tells Delia about the Black community of Harlem’s resistance to the clinic. Many people view the clinic as a way for White women to “play missionary” by teaching Black women to stop having children, with some residents of Harlem even labeling the clinic’s efforts “genocide” against unborn Black children. Delia angrily exclaims that a woman should be able to have sex without bearing a child, but when she realizes Sam is trying to prepare her to confront the deacon, she amends her answer to the one she will give the deacon: that the clinic’s goal is to strengthen the families of Harlem.