I have been a New York city resident for a Little over 10 years now. I came here with a dollar and a dream like every one else. My first stop was Brooklyn U.S.A. home of Gods and Nigga's . My Brooklyn days and nights were filled with adventures as they say what happens in Brooklyn stays with you forever; Like a tattoo.
Come turn of the century 2000; a friend after seeing my ghetto living situation at the time offered me room in Harlem "Wow Harlem". In a blur every child hood movie, black spoliation to a street car flashed through my head and of coarse the answer was obvious. Sugar Hill off 155th C-line from my house I can see Yankee Stadium ; My neighborhood is a mix of African American, Puertorican and Dominican. There's a bodega or corner store on every corner and minority stores specialty stores, niche stores lined every retail block.
I thought to my self I have access to one of the great seat's of culture; I have access to information, industry and the chance to be apart of a legacy. So I stayed and I have watched so called progress loom large over the body of Harlem. Columbia University, Starbucks, Modell’s, KFC.......? All of these chains, so cold, so prefabricated, so wrong for Harlem. We tend to forget the labors of the past in favor of instant gratification.
You can eat there but can you trust the cook was there love in the preparation of the meal or do you worry that some one out of anger frustration or insanity did something to your food? I know your thinking that I'm going overboard but think of me the next time your eating Pop Eyes wandering if the hair on your thigh was real or synthetic or the 45th time the sales attendant asks you if you need help in a 5 minute time span.
Then to add insult injury the eminent domain threat keeps on rearing it's ugly head. I'm all for so called progress but what gets my nerve is the fact that when Harlem was down and out no one wanted to come here except to party and after economic growth, a growth propelled by local business not corporate business made Harlem the place to be again these lawyers and corporate thugs want it and they are slowly gentrifying one of the jewels of this city, this country to death. I have been blessed enough to see Harlem as the last vestiges of what it was slip away into folklore and legend and as it dose I'm reminded of the proud people who made it synonyms with the word progress; I'm reminded by the music, the art, the food reminded that I have a part to play and a blood interest in seeing Harlem truly progress.
Come turn of the century 2000; a friend after seeing my ghetto living situation at the time offered me room in Harlem "Wow Harlem". In a blur every child hood movie, black spoliation to a street car flashed through my head and of coarse the answer was obvious. Sugar Hill off 155th C-line from my house I can see Yankee Stadium ; My neighborhood is a mix of African American, Puertorican and Dominican. There's a bodega or corner store on every corner and minority stores specialty stores, niche stores lined every retail block.
I thought to my self I have access to one of the great seat's of culture; I have access to information, industry and the chance to be apart of a legacy. So I stayed and I have watched so called progress loom large over the body of Harlem. Columbia University, Starbucks, Modell’s, KFC.......? All of these chains, so cold, so prefabricated, so wrong for Harlem. We tend to forget the labors of the past in favor of instant gratification.
You can eat there but can you trust the cook was there love in the preparation of the meal or do you worry that some one out of anger frustration or insanity did something to your food? I know your thinking that I'm going overboard but think of me the next time your eating Pop Eyes wandering if the hair on your thigh was real or synthetic or the 45th time the sales attendant asks you if you need help in a 5 minute time span.
Then to add insult injury the eminent domain threat keeps on rearing it's ugly head. I'm all for so called progress but what gets my nerve is the fact that when Harlem was down and out no one wanted to come here except to party and after economic growth, a growth propelled by local business not corporate business made Harlem the place to be again these lawyers and corporate thugs want it and they are slowly gentrifying one of the jewels of this city, this country to death. I have been blessed enough to see Harlem as the last vestiges of what it was slip away into folklore and legend and as it dose I'm reminded of the proud people who made it synonyms with the word progress; I'm reminded by the music, the art, the food reminded that I have a part to play and a blood interest in seeing Harlem truly progress.
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