The text brings out the idea of surviving and living. Bobby Womack’s “Across 110th Street”  supplies vivid images  of Harlem having streets busy with activities like drug dealing, alcohol, soliciting, etc. While these activities are looked down upon, Womack’s lyrics portray these as activities people do to survive

“You don’t know what you’ll do until you’re put under pressure
Across 110th Street is a hell of a tester”

and that to live in these streets you have to be strong which is stated in the following lines, “You’ve got to be strong, if you want to survive,” and in the lines, “Pimps trying to catch a woman that’s weak,” or “Pushers won’t let the junkie go free,” implying that those with a weak will won’t endure in these streets.

On the other hand, if you pair it up with Langston Hughes’ “The Weary Blues” which describes a black man who lost his purpose and will to live then the mentioned activities are not just survival but also the last thread that keeps them living.

And yet in Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool” you get the sense that they are also living in the streets as they go about life without a care and enjoying themselves. Even in Womack’s lines

“Hey brother, there’s a better way out
Snorting that coke, shooting that dope man you’re copping out
Take my advice, it’s either live or die”

The singer recognizes that there is more to life than what is being handed to them and that its best to live and work for it than to die waiting. Even Brooks’ states this in the last lines, “We Jazz June. We Die soon.”

Harlem is full of busy streets and people struggling but they are also holding on and living.