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| Author Walter Dean Myers Photo Credit: Malin Fezehai |
Review
The story of Harlem is told through the eyes of both young and old African Americans. The poems include tales of the unemployed, musicians, hair dressers, laborers, and the retired. Included are slightly humorous poems like Hairdresser and Clerk as well as somber poems like Veteran. Veteran is a poem of a soldier returning from war with his head held high; pride and patriotism overflowing. Upon return to America, he is reminded of his place as the second-class black man. The highs and lows of Clara Brown, a dancer, are told through multiple parts throughout the book. In Part VI, she reminds the community, “Harlem has been worse off, and it’s been better. It’s had its big-time people and its struggling folk. If it got to be one thing to everybody, either we wouldn’t be black or it wouldn’t be Harlem. Now, would it?”
Myers poems utilize sense imagery more than anything. In Alto Sax Player you can hear the music with his use of onomatopoeia. Words like “be-bop” and “be- bop bo dee” bring to life the jazz music and you can almost picture the be-bopping and scatting of the singers and audience. In Nanny, the character explains the “aching” of her joints and exhaustion “down to the bone.” The tone of Myers is of appreciation and love for Harlem. You feel like he has experienced the joy and pain in the hardships. The poetry expresses different moods such as fun, joyful, regretful, somber, tired, and frustrated. The following poem, Clara Brown’s Testimony, Part II, evokes pride and delight which quickly change to sadness and disappointment.
Poetry in Action:
Introducing the Poem: Ask students if they have ever been refused something because of a personal characteristic like race, height, gender, and so forth. Allow some of them to share their stories. If students cannot think of a situation, ask them if they have ever known someone else in that situation. For younger students, ask them to express what it feels like to not get what they want.
Follow up Activity: Have a copy of each poem from the book and have students choose a poem. On paper, have them illustrate that poem. Then later, the illustrations can be put together to make a class book of these poems with pictures.
Clara Brown’s Testimony
Part II
The first time my heart was broken, it was by the
Cotton Club. I was too young and full of myself
for no boy to hurt me. Me and my sister, Vicky,
heard they were having tryouts for the chorus
line. We could both dance, and we practiced
our little routine until it was right. We called
ourselves the Queen Sisters. I don’t know why –
we just thought it fit us.
When it time for us to show our stuff, we
did it with style! You hear me? I knew we were
good when we walked in the door. The woman
picking the dancers said she would let us know,
and I made sure she had our right address.
We changed into our street clothes and was
just about ready to leave when the piano player
stopped us. “I’m sorry, girls. You were good,” he
said. “But they only hire light-skinned girls to
dance here.”
I couldn’t tell you what that man looked
like today. You ever try to look at somebody with
tears in your eyes and your lip quivering so bad
you can’t talk? That was the day I learned that
being black wasn’t no simple thing, even in Harlem.
