Harlem Duet

The scene opens with the sounds of blues and jazz riffs that underscore Malcolm X’s 1964 “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech advocating Black Nationalism. Magi stands on the fire escape of Billie’s apartment, which is situated in Harlem on the corner of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Boulevards. She is flirting with the postman outside when Amah, the wife of Billie’s brother Andrew, enters. As Billie sleeps in the bedroom, the two women discuss how she is getting progressively more despondent over the end of her marriage to Othello. Amah makes a comment about the living room looking like a laboratory, what with all the strange lab equipment crowding the table. Magi tries to cajole Billie into joining them, but she doesn’t. Magi and Amah then discuss Amah’s young daughter Jenny, and how much Jenny misses her weekly get-togethers with Billie. Amah shares that she and Andrew are trying for a second child, even though Amah also wants to open a hair salon. She is frustrated that she cannot attain her cosmetician’s certificate without first completing a two-year course on how to do white people’s hair and makeup, even though “there ain’t no White people in Harlem” (26).