The Jazz Anthem Of Harlem

Painting by Rèmi LaBarre 

There is always something very unique about a city. New York is majorly popular for it's business moguls, Paris is majorly popular for it's fashion and romanticism, Eko(Lagos) is majorly popular for it's ports and exchange site (.... since the time of slave trading) and many others.

Then there is HARLEM. Not a city but a neighbourhood in New York, YES, in one of the major cities.

And just like Claude McKay pronounced in his poem " The Harlem Dancer" that the history of Harlem revolved around it's ecstatic jazz clubs.

The poem by Claude Mckay (The Harlem Dancer) 1889-1948:

Applauding youths laughed with young prostitutes

And watched her perfect, half-clothed body sway;

Her voice was like the sound of blended flutes

Blown by black players upon a picnic day.

She sang and danced on gracefully and calm,

The light gauze hanging loose about her form;

To me she seemed a proudly-swaying palm

Grown lovelier for passing through a storm.

Upon her swarthy neck black shiny curls

Luxuriant fell; and tossing coins in praise,

The wine-flushed, bold-eyed boys, and even the girls,

Devoured her shape with eager, passionate gaze;

But looking at her falsely-smiling face,

I knew her self was not in that strange place.

Link: https://poets.org/poem/harlem-dancer

The poem by Claude, who was a Jamican writer and poet, and a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance. In relation to the picture the earlier poet tried to paint, Udifae. Harlem was a part of Claude's cause and existence and he didn't just write from another's experience but his.

The poem "The Harlem Dancer" talks about how young men would gather around to watch not football, nor motor racing but a neighbourhood prostitute who would move strangely yet enticing, move her body to the obvious beats, muse and cruise of Harlem jazz.

It was indeed a sight to behold as Claude confesses to be bamboozled by the Goddess slushy moves. The line "Luxuriant fell; and tossing coins in praise" upheld the fact that the dancer was none other than a mere caricature of the message of the music, in the hands of Jazz artists. 

And just as wavering as the disturbances caused by her elegantly shaped body, in that second she notices who she is and what she represents. In her own way, sending a message to the hypnotized audience and their stare, that she also was aware of what and where she is; dancing to the Harlem jazz anthem.

The Jazz Anthem of Harlem: A poem by Udifae

There was one time, 

Once in time. Where 

all did flow to the anthem,

The jazz anthem of Harlem.

Copyright Work:

Udifae©Read-a-magic