I thought the Harlem tour was pretty enlightening, because I didn’t realize how close we live (all of us in the towers, at least) to such important historical sites.  Since coming to New York, it’s always been a shock for me to see things I’ve only seen in movies or read about. For example, Times Square, Central Park, and Washington Square all initially felt like I was walking into a frame of some movie I had just seen. I had a similar feeling when on the tour, especially recalling a book I read in high school for Lit, “Invisible Man.” This book tells the story of a nameless narrator living through the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights movement, becoming an influential orator, but eventually fading into obscurity. Not even just the people mentioned, but some of the areas we walked through were mentioned in the narrative and were even main plot points. The most interesting thing about the tour was the fact that Langston Hughes’s ashes are in the library, the first building we saw. That particular fact stuck with me through the rest of the tour, because he was such an influential poet and is so ingrained in US literary history. I also found it incredible that he was laid to rest in the same building that initially stunned him as he walked out of the 135th street subway station. I’m grateful to be able to live in such a historically important place, especially so important in recent US history.