Dorian Hairston’s poetry collection Pretend the Ball Is Named Jim Crow offers an insightful exploration of the Black American experience through the lens of Negro League baseball, specifically the career of legend Josh Gibson.
Still wrote of the book:
“(A)n inventive and engaging book of persona poems, detailing the
life of Negro League power hitter and trailblazer Joshua Gibson.“
In his own words, here is Dorian Hairston’s Book Notes music playlist for his poetry collection Pretend the Ball Is Named Jim Crow:
Heightened reading experience –
A Love Supreme – John Coltrane
Kind of Blue – Miles Davis
Monk’s Dream – Thelonious Monk
I always want my poetry to be read aloud and I feel that this collection can be read cover to cover, with these three albums on repeat, and that doing so will heighten the experience of the reader. I have nothing nuanced to say about these three masterpieces and instead hope that you enjoy the combination.
Black and Blue – Lois Armstrong
The rhetorical question of Lois Armstrong “What did I do to be so black and blue” is the refrain of the collection. As I was writing these poems, the philosophy of the blues (though melancholy, not full of sorrow) carried my pen across the page. The answer is, was, and always will be absolutely nothing. The real question that this song asks is the one that I’ve heard Baldwin and Morrison both ask of the folk who possess and exploit so much power for so long, “why must you treat people so terribly to feel good about yourself?”
All The Way – Ledisi
I love this song. Often, when it comes over to the speaker in the house in between dinner and bedtime my wife and I will stop what we are doing and sneak a slow dance. I think this song belongs on this playlist because it encapsulates that deep love that exists when folk are wise enough to listen when they’ve found their partner. I imagine the singer of this song as a young Helen explaining to Josh exactly what she wants out of their marriage.
Mess Around – Ray Charles
When I think about what the Negro Leagues offered, it was an opportunity for men and women to enjoy moments and pockets of freedom. The good music that comes out of black culture, or rather is produced by it, is almost always a celebration of stealing joy (or creating it where necessary). This song always feels like something that would be played in the bar across the street that all the players and fans go to after a big win.
Let the Good Times Roll – BB King / Ray Charles
With so much tragedy in this collection, I am hopeful that my reader understands that the intention of the author is not to depress the folk who pick up my book. Instead, I beg that we develop a keen eye for those good times and stay in those moments for as long as we must. The history of the Negro Leagues is full of black and white working-class folk and poor folk, and rich folk alike, ignoring the demands of a plethora of oppressive systems to have a good time before, during, and after a game at the ballpark. What the integration of baseball and society in the time afterward failed to do, was bring along with the players all of the beauty that made them human.
This is America – Childish Gambino
A large part of this collection is the concept of truth-telling: holding America accountable for its atrocities so that we may find or make a better future for ourselves and those to come. Gambino’s track reminds us that one’s perception of someone is what one repeatedly sees them do. If we want to, as a country, say that we are not violent but instead peaceful, that we are not spiteful or hateful but are loving, we aren’t greedy and selfish but live by the ideals the founders scribed in the original Declaration of Independence, then it requires that we highlight entirely different aspects of America. If we are who say we want to be, our airwaves should be overrun with the stories of the beautiful people whose lives remind us how connected we are to one another.
Cabin in The Sky – Ella Fitzgerald
I think of the poem in this collection titled “Where We Go” when I hear Fitzgerald’s song. I envision Helen humming and singing this on a rocking chair on the front porch of a cabin, scanning the tree line at the point where the gravel road splits the trunks wide enough for one and a half cars. I picture her resting here and Josh, once he arrives elsewhere, following her voice to the chair beside her. While Josh and Helen only had a few years together, that contagious love that existed between the two of them endures far longer than their short lives.
Car Wash – Rose Royce
Pleasure in work has always been paramount to black folk, at least in this country, because black folk have always had to survive the brutality that is the position of being the employee of some cruel other. I remember loving listening to this song in the car with my dad in particular and enjoying the idea that maybe being rich isn’t that fun because if you’re rich, you can’t sing this song. My youthful ignorance has since disappeared (some rich folk love this music, too). However, this song captures what the Negro Leagues were, and it is important to note that the generation immediately before Rose Royce’s song was that of the Negro Leagues. Most importantly, black folk have never been lazy. We have always done the work we must, and our music helps us stay peaceful while doing so.
Ol’ Man River (Final Version) Paul Robeson
I place Robeson on my Mount Rushmore of black men I revere, respect, and draw much of my inspiration from. Throughout his life, this song received a few changes to its lyrics, and here it is one of the rare instances where I prefer the edited version over the original. The lines “I must keep fightin’ / Until I’m dying’.” capture for me what I hope my art contributes to in this long tradition of black artists resisting oppression in all of its forms. Black artists have no choice but to fight for the realization of the future they know we can create. What I love about Robeson’s life is that he showed what that fight looks like, beautifully.
The most difficult aspect of compiling this list was deciding what not to include. My musical taste is eclectic and as a result, the original list was vast. I am grateful for the opportunity to create a playlist for my debut collection of poetry and I hope that if nothing else, you enjoy dancing to some good music.
Dorian Hairston is a poet, scholar, and former University of Kentucky baseball player from Lexington, Kentucky. He is a member of the Affrilachian Poets and his work has appeared in Shale, Anthology of Appalachian Writers, and pluck!