Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Terrance Hayes’s “New Folk” is a meditation on race, tradition, and appropriation within American folk music. The poem’s voice is conversational yet infused with historical and cultural resonance, blending humor, irony, and critique. Hayes explores how Black musicians navigate folk traditions, positioning them within a lineage that includes Elizabeth Cotten and Tracy Chapman, while also acknowledging the racialized dynamics of audience and reception.

The poem opens with a playfully revisionist description of folk music as “dressed in Blues but hairier and hemped,” immediately signaling that Hayes is aware of the ways folk music, though rooted in Black traditions, has been reshaped in popular imagination. The juxtaposition of “Blues” with “hairier and hemped” suggests a transformation from its origins into something more aligned with white countercultural aesthetics. By invoking Elizabeth Cotten—renowned for her intricate guitar playing and influence on folk revivalists—Hayes establishes a historical throughline that connects early Black folk musicians to contemporary expressions of the genre. The mention of Jebediah’s question about the “bucolic blacks with good tempers” drips with irony, as it exposes the racialized expectation that Black musicians in the folk tradition should be benign, humble, and agreeable, a far cry from the disruptive, resistant force that Black music has historically embodied.

The middle of the poem details a road trip that serves as both literal and symbolic movement through the spaces where Black folk music was historically cultivated. The “Chitlin’ Circuit,” the network of venues that supported Black performers during segregation, is contrasted with a “joint skinny as a walk-in temple,” evoking a sacred yet diminished space. This is a place where the music has not been erased but has also not been fully preserved in its original vitality. Hayes describes their “new folk” as “not that new, but strengthened by our twelve-bar conviction,” referencing the twelve-bar blues structure that undergirds much of American folk and blues music. This acknowledgment of continuity suggests that their music is part of a lineage, an ongoing dialogue with the past rather than an attempt to reinvent it.

A crucial shift occurs when “a parade of well-meaning alabaster post-adolescents” arrives at the venue, marking the incursion of white audiences into a space historically defined by Black musical traditions. The image of “sand-tanned and braless ones” in the front row highlights a particular type of white liberalism that fetishizes Black culture while remaining detached from its deeper struggles. These concertgoers are drawn to the “twangor” of the music, yet Hayes suggests that their attraction is not purely aesthetic; rather, they hunger for something “outlawable.” This phrase underscores a tension between Black music as an authentic expression of struggle and the way it is often consumed as an exotic, rebellious spectacle. Folk and blues, genres born from oppression and resistance, are transformed into a backdrop for white audiences seeking an experience of edginess without real stakes.

The final lines of the poem center on J’s question about when “sisters like Chapman” will arrive. Tracy Chapman, a Black folk singer-songwriter known for her socially conscious lyrics, stands as a counterpoint to the predominance of white folk artists. Her absence in this space signals the erasure of Black voices from a genre they helped create. The speaker’s response—“When the moon’s black”—is cryptic yet loaded with meaning. A black moon, an astronomical term for a second new moon in a month, is rare and unseen, much like the presence of Black women in the contemporary folk scene. The phrase carries an air of prophecy, patience, and inevitability, implying that while Black folk musicians may be sidelined, their return is certain. The instruction to “be faithful” suggests a belief in the resilience of Black artistry despite systemic exclusion.

“New Folk” is both an elegy and a critique, examining the tension between preservation and appropriation in American folk music. Hayes constructs a world where Black musicians are aware of their history, conscious of the audience’s expectations, and resigned yet hopeful about their place within the genre. Through irony, historical allusion, and intimate reflection, the poem captures the uneasy dynamic of Black musicianship in predominantly white spaces, where cultural appreciation often veers into cultural consumption. Hayes ultimately affirms the endurance of Black folk traditions, urging patience and faith in a future where they will once again be fully seen and heard.

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