Plumes

About Georgia Douglas Johnson

Playwright and poet Georgia Douglas Johnson was a leading literary figure of the Harlem Renaissance:

Johnson was one of several African American women playwrights publishing and producing plays in an era where the American theater was dominated by white men. According to Sharon D. Raynor, Johnson's drama is particularly notable for how it centers on a "world of female knowing" that reflects a "black literary tradition that emphasizes the 'need for a community of women--the desire to maintain an all female world where women are central.'"

Plumes is Johnson's most well known play, and is described by scholar Judith E. Barlow as "perhaps the best play written by a black woman in the early years of [the 20th] century." It was first performed in 1927 in Chicago, and published that same year in the National Urban League's journal Opportunity and won first prize in Opportunity's nationwide literary contest. It was later performed at the Harlem Experimental Theatre in 1928 or 1929.

Citation: Judith E. Barlow, "Introduction," in Plays by American Women, 1900-1930 (New York: Applause Theatre Books, 1981), xxvi.

Funeral traditions

African American communities have a rich tradition of ornate and lavish funerals. One recent article in The Atlantic explains:

Black funeral traditions are distinctive from other burial rituals in American culture. Funeral directors have long preserved the African American tradition of homegoings, as these Christian ceremonies are often called: Bodies are typically viewed in an open casket, and a richly adorned one at that, with large floral arrangements and ornate fabrics. There are limousines and nice cars to escort families, which lends a sense of pride and pageantry to the lengthy rituals. “To give a peaceful, celebratory homegoing, it’s the whole idea of a celebration of life,” says Karla F.C. Holloway, a professor of English, law, and African American studies at Duke University. It’s become part of black burial traditions, she says—even though “it is a contradiction to the ways in which many black bodies come to die.” Homegoings can offer black Americans the respect in death that they don’t always receive in life.

Plumes

Using ostrich feathers as decoration for extravagant funerals is a common practice across many cultures. While it may seem shallow to be so concerned with appearances in the face of death, scholar Sally Alexandre puts the practice in this helpful context: "a beautiful send-off appealed to the sensibilities of people for whom respect and recognition were rare in their daily lives." As a response to "the 'little deaths' that a black person dies each day," a lavish funeral affirms the worth and value of the departed individual publicly for those who survive.

Distrust of Medicine and Folk Healing

There is a long history of African Americans distrusting doctors and the medical establishment.

For an overview, check out this article from The Hill: which discusses the historical roots of black distrust of the medical profession, and how that feeling persists in modern society.
This New York Times article from January 2020 also traces the long history of racism and disparities in the American health care system.

Because medical care was often unavailable or untrustworthy within African American communities, a robust culture of "folk healing" fills the gap.

For an interesting conversation on the topic, read or listen to this NPR interview with Stephanie Mitchum, author of the book African American Folk Healing
This page from the Duke University medical center gives a list of some "Medical Folklore of Black Americans."

Coffee Grounds

Tasseography is the traditional practice of reading fortunes in the patterns made by coffee grounds or tea leaves. The practice originated in Turkey: “It is known that coffee fortune-telling first appeared in the Ottoman Palaces in the 1500s. Turkish coffee is a coffee culture that later spread to Bosnia, the Middle East and the Balkans, and then to many parts of the world.” Source: Turkish Coffee Fortune-Telling - Meaning of Figures and Symbols (turkishvibe.com)

There are many methods of practicing tasseography, and there's no way to know exactly how Tildy reads the patterns in Charity's coffee grounds, but here are some examples you can explore:

"The Art of Reading Turkish Coffee Grounds," from J.L. Hufford Coffee & Tea Company.
"Coffee Fortune Telling: How Does It Work?" from coffeeaffection.com
Here's a video demonstration from Sema Bal, a "Turkish Coffee Messenger."

Charity and Tildy's trust in the message of the coffee grounds contrasts sharply with the perspective of Dr. Scott. Jeanne-Marie A. Miller provides a useful interpretation of these conflicting points of view: "In a culture where ail ments are treated by the folk themselves with herb teas, broths, and other homemade brews, there is a general distrust of the unknowns of medical science.

Folk drama

Plumes stands as one vivid example of "Negro folk drama" : a model promoted by leading scholar and critic of the Harlem Renaissance, Alain Locke. In contrast to the "problem play" that is focused only on protesting racial inequality, Locke urged African American playwrights of the 1920s toward "the development of the folk play. Negro drama must grow in its own soil and cultivate its own intrinsic elements" based on "free self-expression ... to express beautifully and colorfully the folk life of the race."

Citation: Alain Locke, "The Drama of Negro Life," Theatre Arts 10 (October 1926), 706.

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