Chapter 21: Black Annie Hall – Summary and Analysis
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
The poem "Black Annie Hall" follows a Black woman who shares a name and urban setting with the title character of Woody Allen's 1977 film. She is described in a black wool hat and black suspenders, waiting in line to see the 1920 silent film Within Our Gates by Oscar Micheaux. After a session with her analyst, she has difficulty hailing a cab. She stands on her roof, drinks white wine after tennis, and is described as "dewy." Living alone, she calls for help to kill a black widow spider in her bathroom. Her white boyfriend asks her not to smoke a marijuana cigarette in bed, a request that prompts an "out-of-body" feeling. Bored with her leisure, she signs up for adult courses but cannot choose between philosophy and poetry. The poem ends with her driving eighty miles per hour on New York's West Side Highway, top down, hair unmoved.
Key Events
- Black Annie Hall waits in line to see Within Our Gates.
- She fails to hail a cab after leaving her analyst’s appointment.
- She kills a black widow spider in her bathroom with help.
- Her white boyfriend asks her to stop smoking marijuana in bed.
- She enrolls in adult courses, torn between philosophy and poetry.
- She drives recklessly fast on the West Side Highway with the convertible top down.
Character Development
The poem does not depict traditional character growth; instead, it builds a portrait through a series of vignettes. Black Annie Hall emerges as a woman of contradictions: intellectually curious (attending a historic race film, considering philosophy) yet indulging in stereotypical markers of urban privilege (tennis, white wine, analyst). The difficulty hailing a cab, a common racial bias experience, subtly signals that her race complicates her otherwise comfortable life. Her response to the boyfriend’s request – feeling “out-of-body” – suggests a detachment from that relationship or from a performance of herself. The final image of driving fast with unmoved hair implies a controlled defiance or a desire to escape constraints.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
Intertextuality and Naming – The title "Black Annie Hall" directly references the neurotic white protagonist of Woody Allen’s film. Cortez reclaims the name for a Black woman, forcing a comparison that highlights race. Annie Hall’s quirky, romantic New York is replaced by a Black woman’s New York where even hailing a cab is fraught.
The Gaze and Racialized Leisure – The poem juxtaposes leisure activities (tennis, white wine, adult courses) with subtle racial markers: Within Our Gates is an early Black film about a lynching; the black widow spider (its name echoing racism and danger in the domestic sphere); the boyfriend who polices her marijuana use. Annie Hall’s leisure is not innocent but layered with historical and racial weight.
Solitude and Autonomy – She lives alone, kills her own spider, and drives fast alone. Yet her autonomy is undercut by the boyfriend’s presence and the failed cab hail. The final line "hair unmoved" can be read as both unflappable poise and a sign that the wind cannot touch her – perhaps because the speed itself is a fantasy or because her identity is fixed.
Symbols: Black Wool Hat and Suspenders – The outfit suggests a deliberate, almost performative style – perhaps channeling a 1920s or bohemian aesthetic. The hat and suspenders are androgynous, complicating gender norms.
Why This Chapter Matters
In the context of Golden Ax, "Black Annie Hall" is a standalone character study that uses a well-known cinematic touchstone to examine how a Black woman navigates spaces – physical, psychological, and cultural – that were not designed for her. The poem condenses a lifetime of microaggressions, desires, and boredom into forty-some lines. It matters because it refuses to flatten the Black female experience into either tragedy or triumph; instead, it presents a messy, specific, ordinary life where watching a race film and hailing a cab carry equal weight. The chapter also demonstrates Cortez’s interest in remixing and recontextualizing pop culture through a Black feminist lens.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Cortez name her character “Black Annie Hall”? What effect does this allusion create?
The name forces the reader to compare the character to Woody Allen’s Annie Hall. The original Annie Hall is a white, neurotic, free-spirited woman in New York. By adding "Black," Cortez highlights what is absent from the original film – a Black protagonist – and uses the contrast to expose how race changes every aspect of that urban lifestyle. The allusion deepens the poem: just as Annie Hall’s life is full of quirks, Black Annie Hall’s life is full of contradictions, but her race adds a layer of social friction that the original character never faced.
2. What is the significance of the black widow spider in the bathroom?
The spider operates on multiple levels. Literally, it is a pest that requires a call for help, reinforcing her solitary domesticity. Symbolically, the word "black" echoes the character’s own racial identity; the widow spider is venomous and associated with danger and female predation. Killing the spider can be read as a small assertion of control over her space, just as she later asserts control over her car. The spider also introduces an undercurrent of unease in a poem otherwise about leisure – suggesting that danger (whether biological or social) is never far away.
3. The poem ends with Black Annie driving eighty on the West Side Highway with the top back and “hair unmoved.” What might this final image convey?
The image of high speed combined with unmoved hair is paradoxical – hair blowing would normally be expected. It could imply that she is so in control that even the wind obeys her, a moment of fantasy or self-mythology. Alternatively, "unmoved" may suggest that her identity remains fixed despite the reckless speed, as if she cannot escape herself. The highway itself is a liminal space, moving between destinations but not arriving. This ending leaves the reader with a sense of motion without progress, encapsulating the poem’s exploration of a life that is both dynamic and stuck.