Take the A Train

*hums the tune of the piano at the beginning of that song*

I get a lot of lip about not having a TV. From my students. From my friends who come over to visit. Too, I get lip about my music. For someone without a TV the second assumption would be that I *must* have a lot of music. While I have a good bit, I find myself listening to the same songs over and over. And I'm content with that.

I don't know what that has to do with anything.

Yesterday it hit me. The area of Harlem I'm moving to is called Sugar Hill. Everyone always talks about Sugar Hill, and of course there's the famous Sugar Hill Gang (Rapper's Delight)...and so on. There's even now a Sugar Hill Beer, which I have yet to taste. But it hit me what I will be living in, what tradition. There are variations of where the name Sugar Hill came from, but of course the most positive connotation is it was a place for the black middle class and artists during the Harlem Renaissance, referring to the sweet life they had above Harlem proper (namely, 125th Street) My building was built in the late 18, early 1900's so it's very well that some artist, some writer, some singer lived in my very same building!

Here's a list of some folks who lived and wrote and loved here:

Duke Ellington
Ralph Ellison
Zora Neale Hurston
Jacob Lawrence
Nella Larsen
Paul Robeson

Of course the story goes, someone asked Ellington for directions to Harlem, and he simply said, "Take the A Train" -- yep. That's how you can find me :). Writing and living. Maybe, loving.