A collection of poetry from the award-winning, Jamaican-American author of Home to Harlem.
In Harlem Shadows, poet and writer Claude McKay touches on a variety of themes as he celebrates his Jamaican heritage and sheds light on the Black American experience. While the title poem follows sex workers on the streets of Harlem in New York City, the sight of fruit in a window in "The Tropics of New York" reminds the author of his old life in Jamaica. "If We Must Die" was written in response to the Red Summer of 1919, when Black Americans around the country were attacked by white supremacists. And in "After the Winter," McKay offers a feeling of hope.
