I wrote the first verse of this poem many years ago. Upon my return to Harlem as an adult, I realized that I had romanticized it in my head. A reality check was seeing a homeless man sleeping in front of an neglected building that was once the great nightclub Smalls Paradise. I imagined him knowing the history of all of Harlem. Harlem now is filled with great shops, housing, entertainment, and housing( for those that can afford it-another blog topic to come). Thanks to all of the people that stayed in Harlem to help to build it back. Also good luck to all of the entrepreneurs who are trying to build here. This poem is a 1988 reflection ( updated with history and facts that I've learned since then)
When Smalls Had It All
( A dream in the head of a man sleeping in the doorway of the former Small’s Paradise in the Village Of Harlem NYC 1988)
By Daniel Carlton
Pt 1
Dreams Birthed
When Smalls had it all
I wish I’d been there y’all
Mama’s face
Daddy’s Grace
A tree of hope standing tall
Apollo sounds
Dreams abound
The Promised Land found
Rise Up You mighty race
Beauty in a child’s Black face
Garvey’s parade is coming find your place
Splendor on hats Sunday strolling avenues
Numbers hits providing those revenues
Seven steps to heaven climbed with brand new shiny shoes
Too clean to sit down with those weary blues
Hey lady in red aint you heard
Langston Hughes been writing Harlem’s words?
Sitting in parlors with Dunbar’s talented tenth
Down the block is a party so that folks can pay the rent
Zora’s telling tales bigger than Jonah and the whale
Reds on speaker’s corner trying to get the Scottsboro Boys out of Jail
Bearden’s brush
captured so much of a migration of a people leaving Jim Crow in a rush
Even in great depression
The Savoy’s dance floor was cooking- class is in session
For Ellington’s best take the A train next
Come Sunday Satin doll
The Alhambra ‘s hosting a ball
Drink up that bootleg backroom gin
Or sit on a stool at Connie’s Inn
Up in and down the avenue’s one happy shout
Joe the Brown Bomber knocked that sucker out!
PT II
Making medicine out of poison/ or making dream music in spite of the poison
Fading glory
A written off story
Tenements still holding remnants
Of dream checks that can still be cashed
Not deferred yet but running out fast
If you listen carefully
And walk don’t run
There is a sound found in the heart of a slum
Gabriel’s trumpet was sent down to earth
To Minton’s Playhouse for Bebop’s birth
Dizzy and Theolonius Monk
Hitting notes so fast
That even the air jumped
Drumbeats combined lightning and thunder’s thump
Not coming from the sky
But flying while high
The sax sang songs of the quickest notes heard
Charlie Parker soars- a concrete yard bird
My Funny valentine went on for miles
Broken hearts mixed with styles and smiles
Catch that Trane if you can
A love supreme for every child, woman and man
There was a new escape from the streets that only needed a spoon, needle, matches and came powdered in a bag
A new ages plague yeah dig baby skag
Nodding out on the corner cigarettes in mouths still smoking
What went on their dreams?
Cause the devil wasn’t joking
Part 111
The Evolution Of Revolution/ Dreams die hard /Can you dig it?
Ungawwa Black Power
Raised fists in the air
Brothers and Sisters growing conks out their hair.
Dashikis are the fashion of the day
What’s happening brother/sister was the greeting to say
Conga rythms and poetry in the park
Black and beautiful pride in being dark
The Vietnam war was snatching brothers up
They wasn’t coming back right-heads back in nods instead of held up
The FBI didn’t dig all that black pride
Informers were planted in the Panther’s insides
Many of our leaders assassinated by bullets
Dreams die hard But everything breaks down if from all sides you pull it
Power to the people didn't get all the way done
Disco distracted /the goal became having fun
Angel dust blew many minds apart
Prisons filled up/ With the young who never had much of a fresh start
Attica uprising died down with a massacre
The folks of Harlem normalized disaster
Crack Attacks
Fade to black
Now Rats crawl out of Smalls
Shells of men
Sleep with them
When Smalls had it
I wish we’d seen it y’all
* The location of the former Smalls is now the site of the excellent Thurgood Marshall High School
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