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“Storytelling is sacred. Story must be protected, at all costs. Sometimes at personal cost.”

This passage reflects Canon’s beliefs at the beginning of his character arc, when he hasn’t yet followed his mother’s advice and found a person he loves more than his art. Canon’s devotion to making art is part of his character, but this conviction also airs one of the novel’s messages about the importance of storytelling and the cost of sacrificing a personal life for ambition, reflecting The Challenges of Preserving Personal and Artistic Integrity.

“Theater has the power to transform, to transport. For every person waiting for curtains to rise, this story is the vehicle to escape the mundane, the grind, the pressures life imposes on us. I know because I feel those same pressures. I feel the weight of life and I want to be lifted as badly as they do. For someone tonight, I’m the getaway.”

As a complement and answer to Canon’s reflection on the power of storytelling, Neevah’s reflection on the power of theater supports and continues this theme about the importance of art as a way to escape or sometimes transform suffering. This shared belief hints at the compatibility between their characters and also underlines the novel’s celebration of the value of art in human life.

“This movie […] it’s a true story. It’s a life story, and though I’ll take some creative license, I’m looking for someone true.”

Canon’s dedication to being authentic and respectful in telling Dessi’s life story reflects his integrity as an artistic creator and The Importance of Recognizing and Celebrating Black Artists. His commitment to bringing awareness to a forgotten Black performer also speaks to the novel’s themes about artistic integrity and the connection between art and life.

“Do you have any idea how many Dessi Blues there are? Black artists who shaped our culture, made our music, but whose contributions have gone unacknowledged? Their stories just slipped through the cracks.”

Canon directly voices the novel’s interest in the importance of recognizing and celebrating Black artists who have made contributions to art and culture, not just during the Harlem Renaissance but more broadly. The novel often touches on the question of whose stories get remembered and retold and which stories are buried or forgotten.

“I’m struck anew by fame and how it cracks open the book of your life for people to read before they’ve even met you or know anything about the person behind the stories they’ve heard.”

Imagining the history of one’s life as a book that, when one becomes famous, is open for anyone to read provides a metafictional metaphor that gestures toward the novel’s own medium. This passage also captures one of the initial obstacles that Neevah navigates in her relationship with Canon, which is learning about the man behind the reputation and seeing the truth within the stories that are told about him.

“When you lose your natural family by blood, the family you choose is that much dearer, and I’m closer to Takira than anyone else.”

Throughout the novel, Takira plays the role of foil and support to Neevah, providing opportunities to dwell on her strengths and challenges to help develop Neevah’s character. Their friendship also illustrates the novel’s theme about the importance of having a support system, especially if one’s biological family is not present or available.

“Dessi’s world: a city struggling to drag itself from the Great Depression. Black people, striving to live and love and laugh and sing in a world that sometimes made all those things harder to do. But they carved out a vibrant, spectacular community in Harlem. A time of excellence and style and art.”

The setting for the film Dessi Blue within the Harlem Renaissance brings visibility to this important historical and cultural moment in the US and emphasizes the importance of recognizing and celebrating Black artists. The theme of uplifting Black creatives also provides a thematic resonance for Neevah’s and Canon’s contributions to their vibrant contemporary culture, which can still, not unlike the 1930s, impose inequitable barriers on people of color.

“Whereas Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly went on to Hollywood, [Frankie Manning] went to work in the post office for ’bout forty years ’til somebody ‘revived’ him when he was seventy years old. Lease he did win a Tony before he died. A little of the recognition he shoulda got. Girl, the way they do us.”

One of the novel’s commitments is to bring attention to the way the work of Black creatives and other artists of color is so often not as recognized, valued, or celebrated as comparative work by white creators. Lucia, the choreographer for Dessi Blue, educates Neevah, and the reader, on the example of Frankie Manning, stressing the importance of recognizing and celebrating Black artists.

“She has no idea that we could crush each other. That beyond this door and this feeling, her career, her whole life, could be jeopardized by what we do tonight.”

The narrative creates momentum through the deferral of sexual consummation, which elevates the sexual tension between the characters. Canon’s decision to wait to date Neevah until filming ends recognizes the pitfalls of the power dynamic between them, in that he is her boss and she is also a new actress trying to build her career. This shows a sensitivity for her situation that signals that Canon is an appropriate partner for her, while also highlighting the challenges of preserving personal and artistic integrity.

“Just beyond this fake alley and deep shadows is the set and the cast and the crew and the real world. And this…we…are not happening there yet. And I just want a few more seconds in this world where we are, even if the only real thing here is us.”

After Neevah and Canon acknowledge their attraction but defer pursuing a relationship, the attraction between them thrives on secrecy and stolen moments, which the novel illustrates by Neevah’s sense in this passage that they are inhabiting a make-believe world that is different from the real world. The sense of a hidden world between two people plays on the larger premise of the movie—another manufactured and make-believe world that is a reprieve from the real one.

“With my life barreling ahead at breakneck speed, with a decade’s worth of work harvesting rewards seemingly overnight, there’s been a tiny hole in my happiness. An irritating tear like a sock in need of darning. A secret tucked inside my shoe, but it doesn’t affect the way I walk, and I’m the only one who knows it’s there.”

Upon returning to visit her family over Christmas, Neevah uses these metaphors to reflect on how the estrangement from her family has been a source of pain for her in the years she’s been away. The sense of interior hurt that she hides from the rest of the world is a parallel to Neevah’s lupus, which she also disguises. The need to reconcile with and forgive her sister forms part of Neevah’s character growth over the course of the novel, reflecting The Benefits of Healing and Reconciliation.

“We can’t repair everything in one night, in one conversation, but these words and Mama’s arms around me go a long way—go the right way. We are on our way back to each other.”

While Neevah’s romantic relationship with Canon is unfolding during the third and middle act of the novel, a parallel progression is happening in her relationship with her mother, with both arcs following a path toward wholeness. The reconciliation with her mother makes Neevah aware of how much she longs for family and connection, which is part of what draws her to Canon, driving the romance arc as well as her character growth and allowing her to recognize the benefits of healing and reconciliation.

“It feels like the universe has come down to these seconds under a watching sky. It’s come down to the contact between our bodies and our breaths, growing more ragged the longer we sway together.”

In a contemporary romance, an important narrative element is an intense and building sexual attraction between the leads, which pays off in detailed scenes of sexual intimacy. This image of them inhabiting their own universe on the first night they sleep together reflects a common trope of the genre: the sense of characters being completely caught up in passion and in one another.

“But you, I’ve seen since the first night we met, and I can’t unsee your light.”

Canon frequently refers to the light within Neevah as the element that first drew him to her. This light stands in for the beauty of her character, her strength of spirit, and the way she pours herself into her performances. That he sees and is drawn to her light, representing her inner essence, proves that Canon is the ideal romantic partner for Neevah.

“I want this. I want him, and if I have to endure some speculation, well, dammit, I’ll do what I said. I’ll prove I deserve this job. I’ll keep earning their trust.”

In some ways, Camille’s exposure of Canon and Neevah’s relationship is anticlimactic because it doesn’t become the obstacle that the reader might anticipate. Instead, this moment becomes the catalyst for Canon to publicly declare his interest in Neevah, which moves the relationship to a new level and develops the romance arc. Their commitment to their work and each other speaks to the challenges of preserving personal and artistic integrity.

“I don’t get stronger when you shield me from things, but I can draw strength from you if you walk with me through them.”

Neevah’s reminder to Canon that she doesn’t need him to protect her shows the strength of her character, which is equal to his, thus signifying they are compatible romantic partners. Her wish for him to walk beside her is an image that returns when they confront Neevah’s health issues and the challenges presented by her illness.

“I thought she [Dessi Blue] was here to serve me, a means to the end of my big break. Now, I realize I’m here to serve her—to make sure a voice this rich and true, swallowed by the years and by injustice, is finally heard.”

Neevah’s progressive investment in the role of Dessi Blue experiences a turning point when she sees herself as an instrument for telling Dessi’s story and letting her history be known. This decision fits with the theme of the importance of recognizing and celebrating Black artists but also speaks to the challenges of preserving personal and artistic integrity, as Neevah thinks of her performance as having meaning beyond herself.

“I wanted her to say it. I wanted her to put words to this thing that was planted in me the first night I saw her onstage and has grown little by little ever since until now it’s full-blown. Those aren’t words I ever thought I would want to hear from a woman, much less consider saying them myself.”

One of the chief conventions of the romance genre is that two protagonists who don’t think they are ready or able to love end up falling deeply, passionately in love with just the right person. Finding out about Neevah’s illness is the catalyst that Canon needs to realize how important she is to him, which entails realizing that she is the first woman he’s loved in a romantic sense.

“The irony of making Dessi Blue is that so much has changed since then, but some things remain the same. The reality is that in this town, there are barriers harder for me to clear than others.”

One of the themes that gains prominence as the novel develops is the light shed on discrimination against Black Americans both before and after the civil rights movement. Canon’s reflection on the extra barriers he faces in Hollywood as a Black director point to continuing system racism in the film industry, despite the progress that has been made since the time in which Dessi Blue is set.

“This helpless feeling, the one that hounded me to every pier my mother wanted to visit, that dimmed every sunset—it’s back. The one woman who reaches my heart could shatter it the same way my mother did when I lost her.”

Canon’s internal conflict intensifies with Neevah’s illness when he compares the potential of losing her to the grief he felt over losing his mother, the only other woman he’s loved. Being at Neevah’s side and supporting her helps Canon work through his grief and helps evolve the relationship between them from sexual attraction to steadfast love.

“This is their legacy. I am their legacy.”

When Neevah watches parts of Dessi Blue with Canon, she is awed by the brilliance of the creatives who contributed to the Harlem Renaissance and feels proud at being part of their legacy. The novel’s theme of the importance of recognizing and celebrating Black artists shines through Canon’s and Neevah’s goals to bring Dessi’s story to life.

“Can you just let me be sad? Can you just let it hurt? I don’t need you to tell me why it shouldn’t, or that it will be okay. I just want to not fight for a minute. Can you be here for me, with me, while I stop fighting and let myself feel this? I promise I’ll get back up, but for just a minute, let me fall.”

With Neevah’s illness, the novel explores the challenges of living with a chronic illness. Neevah’s quiet request to Canon reflects how the person with the illness can feel the need to hide it so that they don’t burden people around them or are not discriminated against or treated differently. This moment of honesty and emotional vulnerability further consolidates Neevah and Canon’s bond, cementing their relationship.

“Hers was a race that had already been decided, a race against time, but the beauty was in how she ran. And I think that’s the point. Every single one of us is in that race, and a race against time is one you’ll never win.”

Emphasizing the parallel between them as the important women in Canon’s life, Neevah takes inspiration from Canon’s mother, Remy, when she watches the film he made of her. Remy reminds Neevah to enjoy what she has and make the most of her life. Remy’s wisdom helps restore that light that Canon has always seen inside of Neevah.