| "Avenue D" Houston to 14th, east side of the strip, split on 6th, the projects are the feathers of Avenue D. From its wings, the imagination of its youth soars around the globe searching for an olive branch. Yet when viewed up close, strangers are afraid of its beak and claws. Maybe they get their info from the Discovery Channel. But we as a group of families do not embody a vulture, but an eagle surviving a long winter trail. After WW2, whites flew from the city to the suburbs, we flew from the Caribbean to the projects up north to find racial tension, language barriers, gang warfare, Vietnam draft; Rockefeller Slave Laws; FBI destroying activism; heroin destroying families; slumlords burning tenements; NYC bankrupt; cocaine money; AIDS epidemic; TB outbreak; music cut out of elementary schools; asbestos postponing the start of school; scandalous Special Ed.; led paint in every apartment; outrageous rent hikes; and now hip hop betraying our children. Hot, human pee frozen on snow, we survive year after year to find every other month is January and those in between is December. It is cold in the summer when City Hall cuts youth employment. But we warm ourselves near the music radio or the mix tape booming out of someone's bedroom or someone's car; or the live d.j. in the basement jam; or the battle rap outside the bodega or on a bench echoing off the projects all around. Perched on the rooftops, we oversee Alphabet City. From high in the sky, we saw the slumlords burning down family homes. Now we see investors rising up yuppie closet space. We know about those rats be-low. With a double consciousness, we are an American eagle. Endangered, s�, but with wings too strong to return south. From Houston to 14th, east side of the strip, split on 6th, the projects, the feathers, of Avenue D. |