Angel Allen, a struggling blues singer, has just been fired from her job at the Cotton Club after berating her gangster ex-boyfriend mid-performance. Her best friend, openly gay costume designer Guy Jacobs, has also lost his job at the Cotton Club, but aspires to design dresses for the famous Josephine Baker in Paris. Their next door neighbor, Delia Patterson, fights to open a family planning clinic, while their friend Sam, a doctor, delivers babies at the Harlem Hospital. In the face of hardship, Angel and her friends find a sense of community and fight to keep their dreams alive. But when the very conservative and religious Leland Cunningham begins to court Angel, the friend group must decide to press on with their ambitions or give into the restrictive realities of their time. Set in an apartment building in Harlem over an eight-week period, Blues for an Alabama Sky explores economic hardship, reproductive rights, homophobia, and community as the Harlem Renaissance is forced to face the Great Depression.
Blues for an Alabama Sky guide sections
