And There Was the Night

By Penny L. Washington

Dedicated to the dark and lovely ones

I

The days that must be endured

The days belonged to them those devoid of hue and humanity.

Theirs was a history of hateful ways. The days were taken up with the inevitable struggles and sacrifices. The cold calculations that had to be considered the saving, the scrimping, the stretching always just to a time named until.

And you remembered

All

The practices you learned, those postponements that had to be taken into cruelty’s account.

You had become proficient in doing the arithmetic of accumulated accommodations that made survival possible.

You had arrived in the “Up South” that spoken of promised land. The warmth of remembered suns embraced you and you recalled that embrace.

II

Harlem Nights

And

Yet

There was the night. It belonged to us. The nights were

DARK

LOVELY

LIKE US.

The darkness softened the demarcations life imposed, those harsh divisions that were sustained on systems of separation.

III

Savoring Joy

Those Harlem nights had no economies of making do. Those nights were full to the brim, flowing over with our joy expressed. Those nights held our men. They were divine diplomats from other realms dispensing salvation with their hot music and their even cooler attitudes.

Those Harlem nights held our women who knew themselves to be

Colored Goddesses.

They arrayed themselves in the finery of the new. They walked into rooms with hips swaying and sashayed into tomorrow’s brighter days.

They did so in ways that would have shocked their respectable church Mamas “Down Home”. Their mouths spoke dared declarations saying that all that is good I have a right to claim.

IV

And

Yet

There was the night

Waiting

Urging us to remember who we were

Anticipating the moment that the sons and daughters reclaimed the inherent promise within themselves.

PENNY L. WASHINGTON

A native of West Chester, Ms. Washington has studied many aspects of African American history and published her findings in the Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society’s History Quarterly. She has served as a historical consultant for several People’s Light’s World Premieres and other productions, including Mud Row, Bayard Rustin Inside Ashland, the ripple, the wave that carried me home, Bonez, and A Raisin in the Sun. Ms. Washington is a former Board member of the Radnor Township Civic Association and currently serves as a historical consultant for the Tredyffrin Easttown School district. Her expertise is being used to examine curriculums to be more inclusive and create a local mural project.