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Guy Jacobs
Delia Patterson is a young social worker involved in establishing a family-planning clinic in Harlem. She works closely with Margaret Sanger, a historical figure who is often regarded as the founder of the birth control movement. Delia’s work as a birth control activist initially alienates her from the Harlem community; she is a Black woman, but Margaret Sanger is White, and many residents of Harlem are suspicious of the clinic’s apparent aim to decrease the number of children in Black families. Delia, however, believes passionately that birth control guarantees women the right to have sex without being forced to become mothers. Delia begins the play naïve and inexperienced about alcohol, sex, and Harlem nightlife. Over the course of the play, she becomes more confident and more connected to the people in Harlem whom she aims to help. She begins a romantic relationship with Sam, who is several years older than her and gently teaches her to enjoy not only sex but pleasure more broadly. After Sam’s death, Delia joins Guy when he leaves Harlem for Europe. She has learned from Sam the importance of simply having a good time, and in his memory, she decides to broaden her horizons even further and pursue new adventures abroad.
Delia Patterson Quotes in Blues for an Alabama Sky
The Blues for an Alabama Sky quotes below are all either spoken by Delia Patterson or refer to Delia Patterson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Act 1, Scene 1 Quotes
GUY. Paris has never seen costumes like the ones I’m designing for La Bakaire!
DELIA. Do you ever think you won’t go?
GUY. I’m going. Besides I have no choice. The matter is now officially out of my hands. Angel wasn’t the only one who got fired last evening. […] Well, I couldn’t hardly stand by and let Bobby toss her bodily out on the street, could I?
DELIA. What are you going to do?
GUY. I’m going to drive Josephine crazy until she sends for me. […]
DELIA. I’ve got a little money saved if you need anything.
GUY. Aren’t you sweet?
He kisses her.
I’m fine for now. […] Do me a favor?
DELIA. Sure.
GUY. Don’t tell Angel. I don’t want her to panic. I can take care of both of us if I have to. I won’t be the first time.
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Act 1, Scene 2 Quotes
DELIA. He was wonderful! He got so worked up at the end of his sermon, he came out of the pulpit, walked straight down the middle aisle and right up Seventh Avenue. His robe was billowing out around him like wings…
GUY. That Negro ought to quit preaching and go on into full-time show business.
[…]
DELIA. I talked to him about the clinic.
GUY. You did?
DELIA: And I wasn’t even nervous. I was in line to shake his hand after service and he said he was happy to see I had decided to make Abyssinian my church home. And I said I was proud to be a part of a church that had a sense of responsibility to the masses. […] He knew what I meant! The people of Harlem.
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ANGEL sings her way over to DELIA and begins dancing with her as she sings. DELIA is shy, but delighted. SAM watches them affectionately.
SAM. I didn’t realize your revolution left a space for dancing.
ANGEL (still dancing). All revolutions leave a space for dancing. They just like to pretend they don’t.
DELIA stops dancing.
DELIA (defensive). I’m not trying to make a revolution. I’m just trying to give women in Harlem the chance to plan their families.
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Act 1, Scene 3 Quotes
ANGEL. The myth of the magical Josephine. She practically lives with us but so far I haven’t seen her share of the rent money!
DELIA. Guy says he expects to hear from her by the end of the month.
ANGEL. Guy says, Guy says! He’s been sending her sketches for a year but have you seen a return cable? A letter? A postcard of the Eiffel Tower? Nothing! Nothing but that damn picture hanging up there grinning at me all day and all night! (A beat.) Guy’s a dreamer. He always was and he always will be, but I'm gonna hitch my star to somebody a little closer to home.
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ANGEL. Look at you, Deal. You got bags under your eyes like an old woman. All tired and frowned up. […] Sit down here for a minute. Can I take your hair aloose?
DELIA. Angel...
ANGEL. This will only take a minute, I promise.
DELIA sits, and ANGEL begins to massage her head expertly. As ANGEL talks, we see DELIA’s body relax.
A New Orleans Voodoo woman showed me how to do this when I was a little girl back in Savannah.
DELIA. What was she doing in Savannah?
ANGEL. The Voodoo woman? What does anybody do anywhere? How does that feel?
DELIA. Wonderful.
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DELIA. Maybe you should cut back on your nightlife.
SAM. That’s the one thing I should not do.
DELIA. And why is that?
SAM. Because it helps me remember that we’re not just a bunch of premature labors and gunshot wounds. In a choice between a couple of hours’ sleep and a couple of hours of Fats Waller, I’d have to let the good times roll!
DELIA: Don’t you ever stop teasing?
SAM. I don’t want to work so hard on the body I forget about the soul.
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SAM (gently). I deliver babies every day to exhausted women and stone-broke men, but they never ask me about birth control. They ask me about jobs.
DELIA. What does that mean?
SAM. It means we still see our best hope in the faces of our children and it’s going to take more than some rich white women playing missionary in Harlem to convince these Negroes otherwise.
DELIA (angrily). Why can’t we take help wherever we can find it?
SAM. Because it’s more complicated than that. The Garveyites are already charging genocide and the clinic isn’t even open. […] And they’re not the only ones who feel that way. What does family planning mean to the average colored man? White women teaching colored women how to stop having children.
DELIA. A woman shouldn’t have to make a baby every time she makes love!
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Act 2, Scene 1 Quotes
GUY. I’m sewing for whatever clubs are left in Harlem and I got two weddings coming up if all else fails. We’ll make it, Angel. I promise.
ANGEL. You’re a hell of a provider, Big Daddy.
GUY. You wouldn’t dismiss it all so fast if I was a straight man offering to take you to Paris.
ANGEL. But you’re not that, are you?
SAM and Delia arrive.
[…]
GUY. Angel and I have been fighting about my effectiveness as a provider.
SAM. A provider of what?
ANGEL. Let’s talk about something else.
DELIA. Is Leland coming?
ANGEL. Any minute now.
SAM. Should I be asking about this Negro’s intentions?
GUY. Maybe you should ask him if he’s a good provider.
SAM. He seems to be an honest, hard-working man. You can’t hardly ask for more than that, can you?
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Act 2, Scene 5 Quotes
GUY. Harlem was supposed to be a place where Negroes could come together and really walk about, and for a red-hot minute, we did. But this isn’t the end of the world, you know. It’s just New York City.
[…]
When I first met Angel at Miss Lillie’s, she was already saving her getaway money. […] She was headed up to Harlem as fast as she could get there and she believed it so hard, I believed it, too. […] And I’d be lying there with my eyes closed, letting those old men touch me wherever they felt like it, but it didn’t matter, because in my mind, I was stomping at the Savoy! […] [W]hen she was ready to make a move, I’d be ready too. […] I met her at the train station. She was happy to see me, but she sure would have left without me.
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Delia Patterson Character Timeline in Blues for an Alabama Sky
The timeline below shows where the character Delia Patterson appears in Blues for an Alabama Sky. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 1, Scene 1
...As Guy and Leland bring Angel to Guy’s apartment, with help from Guy’s younger neighbor Delia, Angel drunkenly explains that Nick, the Italian man she was dating, has gotten married to...
(full context)
...at the Cotton Club, and he dreams of designing for Josephine Baker. Angel falls asleep. Delia wonders if she should teach Angel how to type, since singing jobs are becoming hard...
(full context)
Act 1, Scene 2
...out that they are more fortunate than many of the other Black residents of Harlem. Delia, who lives down the hall, returns from church and comes to visit Guy and Angel....
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...a Black doctor at the Harlem Hospital, who will be stopping by the apartment soon. Delia disapproves of Sam, believing that doctors should not go out on the town and dance...
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...mouths to feed. The twins’ father gave Sam a bottle of bootleg liquor, and though Delia is wary of drinking it, she joins everyone else in toasting the new babies. The...
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Sam asks Angel to sing the blues, and she does. Delia returns, and Angel dances with her. Sam jokes about Delia’s clinic, which upsets her, and...
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Act 1, Scene 3
A few days later, Delia receives a gift from her aunt: a bright dress that is different from her usual...
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...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...
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Delia declines the invitation to the party because Sam is coming over, and she is surprised...
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...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...
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Sam tells Delia about the Black community of Harlem’s resistance to the clinic. Many people view the clinic...
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Act 1, Scene 4
Sam and Delia return triumphant from a successful meeting with the deacon. Guy invites the pair to wait...
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Act 1, Scene 5
...seeing a finished version of his sketches. Angel is at her audition, so he uses Delia as a model for a costume he is working on. He explains to Delia that...
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Act 2, Scene 1
Sam and Delia arrive and discuss with Guy the logistics of sending the costumes to Josephine Baker. They...
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...orders him to leave the apartment, and Sam goes after Leland to talk to him. Delia goes home. Angel argues with Guy, frustrated that he is interfering with her love life....
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Sam goes to Delia’s apartment, and they discuss the messiness of love. They both admit they’ve been waiting all...
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Act 2, Scene 3
The next day, Delia is fretting in her apartment with Sam. Someone burned down the clinic before it could...
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Act 2, Scene 5
Two weeks later, Delia reads the newspaper while Guy sits with a suitcase looking at his photograph of Josephine...
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Guy invites Delia to join him in Paris. He reflects that Harlem was supposed to be a place...
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Delia wants to go to Paris, but she is nervous. Guy asks her what Sam would...
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Delia leaves, and Angel sits by the window the same way she did on the day...
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