The Dichotomy of the Blues

“Ma Rainey” is as much a celebration of the blues tradition as a whole as it is an homage to one individual performing artist. The scene presented within the poem is one of joy and community, yet it is inescapably flanked by the hardships these characters are facing in the outside world. This dichotomy is first hinted at in the opening stanza when the listeners arrive in broken vehicles and segregated train cars. Even as they travel to an exciting event, the very act of traveling is defined by their social class. The blues honours and observes this duality of life and danger that Rainey’s listeners face every day. When the concert begins, the audience itself is divided into happiness and sadness: “some jokers keeps deir laughs a-goin’ in de crowded aisles, / An’ some folks sits dere waitin’ wid deir aches...