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POETRY FRIDAY: Daybreak in Alabama



This week, not only a poem, but that same poem turned into song.

Langston Hughes is remembered as one of the most significant poetic voices of the 20th century, rising to prominence during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and contributing to the American literary conversation until his death in the 1960s. Like many of the great Black American poets, Langston Hughes was almost foreign to me during my own schooling. I don't remember reading his poetry until I was in college. What a shame, really, but I'm glad to have discovered Hughes and to have shared his work with my students through the years.

Audra McDonald possesses what must be one of the most beautiful, enchanting, haunting, and glorious voices in the world of contemporary theater. She has earned six Tony Awards, winning the first three before she was the age of 28! (I saw her perform in Ragtime on Broadway back in 1998 and was so moved that I bought another ticket to see her again the next day.)

Langston Hughes wrote "Daybreak in Alabama" way back in 1940. It is a dream of a poem that imagines a colorful, quilt-like union of racial harmony. McDonald, working with composer Ricky Ian Gordon, put it to music in 1998, with soaring vocals that celebrate the still-elusive, melodious beauty of "kind fingers...touching...natural as dew."

The poem is below, and you can click this link to hear the song. Enjoy!

Daybreak in Alabama
Langston Hughes (1940)

When I get to be a composer
I'm gonna write me some music about
Daybreak in Alabama
And I'm gonna put the purtiest songs in it
Rising out of the ground like swamp mist
And falling out of heaven like soft dew
I'm gonna put some tall trees in it
And the scent of pine needles
And the smell of red clay after rain
And long red necks
And poppy-colored faces
And big brown arms
And the field of daisy eyes
Of black and white black white black people
And I'm gonna put white hands
And black hands and brown and yellow hands
And red clay earth hands in it
Touching everybody with kind fingers
And touching each other natural as dew
In that dawn of music when I
Get to be a composer
And write about
Daybreak in Alabama.
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