A Small Paradise 1

A dream…a song…half-soled shoes…dancing shoes

A tear…a smile…the blues…sometimes the blues

Mixed with the memory…and forgiveness…of our wrong.

But more than that, it’s freedom—

Guarded for the kids who came along—

Folks, that’s the Heart of Harlem!

— Langston Hughes

An excerpt from the poem The Heart of Harlem (c. 1940s)