In Nikki Giovanni's poem, “Walking Down Park” Giovanni talks about things that used to be on the land of New York that is no longer there as well as, things that could have been there but didn’t have the chance. Giovanni begins the poem by saying “walking down park / amsterdam / or columbus,” these three names are streets located in New York, which is how the reader learns about the setting of this poem. Giovanni then asks “do you ever stop / to think what it looked like / before it was an avenue.” This is the first instance where Giovanni reflects on what things used to be like before New York became a large city. While Giovanni doesn’t dig deep into this first thought of the past, she makes it apparent that things have changed. After asking …show more content…
There are some animals that live in New York City, but not near as many that used to live there before all of the large buildings and streets were placed there. Furthermore, Giovanni is talking about the possibility of the land without human interference.
To further her point about the past and what New York City could possibly look like now, she had a few words that are capitalized throughout the poem such as: “Birch,” “Iroquois, Algonquin and Mohicans,” and “Harlem.” Each of these words refers to something that used to be on the land or a place that would have been different without the man-made city. When talking about the word “Harlem” Giovanni states “ever think what Harlem would be / like of our herbs and roots and elephant ears / grew.” Giovanni talks specifically about greenery that could’ve or would’ve been in New York had it not been for people creating a large city.
Overall, Giovanni speaks about the difference that has been made between what New York used to look like versus what it does now. Giovanni speaks directly and leaves hints throughout the poem about this
East Harlem has no business being in this rich city but there it was, filled with broken promises of a better life, dating decades back to the day when many Puerto Ricans and Latinos gathered their bags and carried their dreams on their backs and arrived in America, God's country. But they would never see God's face. Like all slumlords, God lived in the suburbs" (Quiñonez, 161). Quiñonez records the abuse of foreigners, the minimization of the area, and the express disregard of the city whose nearness is represented more than whatever else by Bodega who plays by the abnormal American
The New York City neighborhood-bounded by the Harlem River, eventually became the biggest and one of the most important black communities in the United States. Harlem began as a farm village in Dutch, New Amsterdam. It remained an agricultural community until after the Civil War. In the 1920’s, the Harlem Renaissance brought together a talented group of artists, writers, and musicians that included Aaron Douglas, Ro-mare Bearden, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Duke Ellington. Harlem, a district of New York City, situated to the north 96th street in NE Manhattan.
While living in Miami he visited two times New York and realized how much it had changed and evolved from what he knew from his time there. The community seemed odd to hime, there were different people, restaurants and markets. The place started going through a gentrification process with whom he could no longer connect to.
We are given a deeper understanding of just what sort of environment Harlem is through the narrator’s
The Big Apple was the capital for those seeking work in America, opportunities to change the lives of anyone, and to give the chance for anyone to follow their dreams. People from all over went to the magical state of New York, from the ex-slave states of Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia; to the free states of Ohio, Oregon, and Iowa a lot of people wanted to go to New York just like today. New York, home to Broadway Theater, home to the roots for many music genres we still listen to today. So much of our culture came from just New York alone. Some ex-slaves, free men and women, were drawn to New York because of all the famous artists and the potential they felt there.
The poem “Harlem” seems like a simple poem that talks about a dream that fades away. The poem is more symbolic than it seems though. The three sentences that have a huge impact on this poem’s symbolism are spread out through the poem. A reader needs to keep in mind that the speaker is talking about a dream in these sentences. “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”