Radio Station: Harlem
Wave Length: The Human Heart
Hello, Jamaica!
Hello, Haiti!
Hello, Cuba!
Hello, Panama!
Hello, St. Kitts!
Hello, Bahamas!
All you islands and all you lands!
That rim the sun-warmed Carribean!
Hello Hello Hello Hello!
I, Harlem,
Speak to you!
I, Harlem,
Island, too.
In the great sea of this day’s turmoil.
I, Harlem,
Little land, too,
Bordered by the sea that washes and mingles
With all the other waters of the world.
I, Harlem,
Island within an island, but not alone.
I, Harlem,
Dark-faced, great, enormous
Negro city
On Manhattan Island, New York, U.S.A.
I, Harlem, say:
HELLO, WEST INDIES!
You are dark like me,
Colored with many bloods like me,
Verging from the sunrise to the dusk like me,
From day to night, from black to white like me.
HELLO! HELLO!
HELLO, WEST INDIES!
They say—the Axis—
That the U.S.A. is bad:
It lynches Negroes,
Starves them, pushes them aside.
In some states the vote is dead.
Those things are partly true.
They say—the enemy—
Via short wave every day,
That there is now no way
For you to put any faith at all
In what the Yankees say—
They have no love for you
Or any colored people anywhere.
That’s also partly true.
There are people here
Who still place greed and power
Above the needs of this most crucial hour—
Just as with you there are those who place
Imperial will above the needs of men.
But here, as there, their day will end.
Listen, West Indies, they
Are not the U.S.A.
Certain things we know in common:
Suffering,
Domination,
Segregation—
Locally called
Jim Crow.
In common certain things we know:
We are tired!
Those things
Must go!
It’s a long ways
From where you live to where I live—
But there’s a direct line
From your heart to mine—
West Indies—Harlem!
Harlem—West Indies!
I like your people, your fruit,
Your sunrise and your song,
Your strength, your sense
Of right and wrong.
We care for each other—
You for me and I for you—
Because we share so much in common,
And because we are aware
Of vast explosions in the air:
FREEDOM!
FOR FREEDOM!
WE PREPARE!
Hello, West Indies!
Hello, Jamaica!
Hello, Haiti!
Hello, Cuba!
Hello, Panama!
Hello, St. Kitts!
Hello, Bahamas!
Hello Hello!
Hello, West Indies!