The Speaker

The speaker can be read as a projection of the poet and his experiences, although they’re not limited to this interpretation. The dialect cues that this character is a black person familiar with the lives and culture of this community. But there are also hints of a more analytical nature as the speaker interviews another concertgoer and seeks to understand the effect Rainey’s music has on these people (Sterling A. Brown was a folklorist who collected similar interviews). In this way the speaker acts as a tether between the 21st-century reader and the underprivileged and subjugated people present in the scene.

Ma Rainey

Ma Rainey exists primarily at the periphery of the poem, yet her influence pervades the entire text. The first stanza illustrates how entire communities come together just to hear her sing. She sings the blues, yet she does so with a smile...