Dear Broadway

Your pavement was the first I stepped on when I decided to start a new.

By that time I wasn’t aware what most amazing events in my life
would lie ahead
and what you would walk me through.
Spent many nights and days with myself in this good spirited house
close to the Hudson.
Only me and my thoughts
and every now and then a little cat
sneaking up the stairs to my room,
announcing that spring was about to come soon.  

There were all these winter nights
filled with tears of farewell and thoughts of people back home
…but then there were the Morning lights
full of joy and new friendship, soon to followed by laughter
while outsides pavement still suffered from weather disaster.

There were no stars in the illuminated sky,
but we had a red full moon above the yard
and we had us to make our wishes.

There were the Nights coming home late up the stairs
with pocket lamps on.
And down on the corner the boys were hanging all night,
waiting for their life to move on.

Oh Broadway,

Your pavement nearly seemed to change with every step I made.
You were always there walking with me,
while you gave me the ground for those overwhelmed feelings
that were talking to me.

Oh Concrete Jungle, you soon became my home…

Always talking loud in various languages
I couldn’t understand, but these new words
that put my new world into new order.
Gave me so much reflection and native pride
and taught me an accent
helping me hustling through every day life.

This chosen lifetime amongst Big City lights, hustlers
and blurry Taxi-rides, in long hot summer nights
where I left my heart on Upper West Side´s.

You street of all streets,
Where else in this world could I feel more arrived?  
Took me by the hand
and made me find my long lost childhood dream
on a barre at dance-school again.

This asphalt made me wander down and lifted me up.

And now it´s like the game ain´t the same.

Good Night beautiful Harlem.
May you always shine so bright.
I miss the Puerto Rican voices and the alarming iceman at night.

  – For Jo, Helena & Sandra –

„The Corner“ 152nd on Broadway

„Mr. Softee“

Dance Studio „Steps“on Broadway //2121 Broadway @ 74th Street, NY

The „1“ Train

Girls in the Winter Hood

The Monestary

Eryn

The Neighborhood „Hamilton Heigts“

further Links:

The Song

The Drifters „On Broadway“

The hood

Hamilton Heights

Entertainment…

Dance Theatre of Harlem

eat something…

Harlem Public

Der Beitrag Open letter to Broadway erschien zuerst auf Urban Appetizer.

Helen Levitt, New York, 1940

Helen Levitt was an American photographer and filmmaker. She was one of the most important representatives of the New York Street Photography. Her favorite sujet were children playing in the street, and everyday life in the streets mostly of the urban poor residents of the City.

Her pictures inspired generations of photographers and curators. In 1931 she started working as a portrait photographer in Brooklyn due what she met Henry Cartier-Bresson and got inspired to buy her first Leica Camera to capture the street-life of her hometown. In 1943 she had her first own exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.

She also gained reputation as a filmmaker. Her movie „The quiet one“ was nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar in 1948. Helen Levitt’s films are regarded as vanguards of the independent low-budget film genre.

Retrospectives of her work have been held at several museums including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, International Center for Photography and the Centre National la Photography in Paris.

Recently Helen Levitt lived in New York, where she died in 2009 at the age of 95 years at her home in Greenwich Village.

Helen Levitt, New York, 1988

Helen Levitt, New York 1972

Helen Levitt, New York, 1978

More

Watch the Movie “The Quiet One”

Portfolio

Exhibition

Helen Levitt “In the Street”

Jepson Center, April 25-September 21 2014

Website: Telfair Museum, Georgia

Der Beitrag Helen Levitt – The Eye Of The Street erschien zuerst auf Urban Appetizer.