Harbor Me

"We think they took my papi. Nobody knows where he's at."

When Esteban reveals that his father is missing and has probably been taken by immigration officials, he does so directly and plainly. He demonstrates bravery through his vulnerability. This act ignites the ARTT’s discussions and inspires Esteban’s classmates to share their stories throughout the school year. 

"This is your time. Your world. Your room."

Ms. Laverne places great trust in the students of the ARTT room by allowing them to have an unsupervised hour each Friday afternoon. The opportunity she creates for them is presented as a gift, something that now belongs to the ARTT group. However, the use of “your” in this passage can be read as a pronoun that is both singular and collective: The opportunity belongs to the group but also to each individual. 

"Back then, we still all believed in happy endings. None of us knew yet how many endings and beginnings one story could have."

Reflecting on the past academic year while simultaneously telling the story of it, Haley utilizes a metaphor of storytelling. This connects to the recurring theme of storytelling and to Haley’s interest in documenting her friend’s stories as well as her own. The passage implies that not all stories have happy endings, which also foreshadows that not all of the ARTT group’s stories will end well, which is proven later when Esteban is forced to return to the Dominican Republic with his family.

"We all have those days we just don't want to show up. Days we just want to forget the world. Doesn't make us bad people. Just makes us people."

Early in Harbor Me, Ms. Laverne models empathy by sympathizing with Esteban’s story, recognizing that the emotional health of her students is of primary importance. In this passage, Haley’s uncle shares another important lesson when he encourages her to empathize with her father for refusing to come to the visitors’ room in prison. The two lessons together help Haley realize the importance of being respected for who she is and of respecting others for who they are. 

"But it's a story on top of a story. It's a story that's started and ended a whole bunch of times."

Haley meditates on the history Ms. Laverne taught her class about the Lenape people who inhabited the New York area before European settlers arrived and took their land. This resonates with Haley because it suggests there is a story hidden below the obvious. She has similarly been hiding the truth about her imprisoned father and deceased mother. On the other hand, the idea that a story could be rewritten or begin anew also resonates with Haley’s situation because it implies she could find another way to present herself to the world.

"Would I let myself be a harbor for someone who needs it?"

Ms. Laverne’s history lesson about the Lenape people also encourages Haley and the other students in her class to think about injustices that have been committed and what to do about them. The Lenape people were killed and lost their land as a result of European settlers’ actions. Ms. Laverne asks the students if they would have helped the Lenape by harboring them, thus alluding to the novel’s title. She also encourages the students to care for each other, thereby fostering the bonds of friendship and support that the ARTT group members create with each other. 

"I wrote poetry because of love. I stopped writing because of love too."

When Esteban first describes his father’s interest in poetry, he explains that his father no longer writes it because he is busy working to care for his family. Later in the novel, his father begins writing poetry again while detained in an immigration facility. The novel positions poetry as connected to resistance to injustice. 

"This is America. Supposed to be the land of the free, but we free? Nah. We got rules everywhere we step."

Amari takes the initial lead in pushing the ARTT group into serious discussions. He begins with a discussion of the rules imposed by adults that restrict the behavior of children. He mentions how he is not allowed to play with water guns anymore but makes clear that he is not simply upset because he cannot use a toy. Instead, he makes clear that he knows that he is not allowed to play with water guns because of the risk that he would be profiled because of his race and mistakenly arrested or harmed. Thoughts like these lead Amari to question the traditional slogan that the United States is the land of the free.

"Maybe that's what made us free. Maybe it was our memories. The stuff we survived, the good stuff and the bad stuff."

Haley reads a letter from her father that contains his apology for not coming out to the prison visitor’s room to see her. She feels empathy for him and is capable of forgiving him despite the hurt he caused, but she finds it hard to forget what happened. This passage explains how Haley is developing an awareness that the stories of what happen to individuals, including both “the good stuff and the bad stuff,” are key to accepting identities for who they are. The passage implies that surviving and overcoming challenges is part of what defines a person.

"We left our classroom and walked down the hall to the art room. The Familiar popped like a bubble above our heads."

Haley thinks back to the moment when Ms. Laverne invited the students in her class to leave their typical room behind and come with her to the ARTT room. All of the students, including Haley, were confused by the strangeness of Ms. Laverne’s invitation, unsure of the purpose of the ARTT sessions. In retrospect, however, Haley identifies that as the moment when Ms. Laverne encouraged students to defamiliarize their world—to look at it in new perspectives, spurred by the students’ free-ranging, unsupervised conversations. 

"My pops said it's like we're suspects from the day we're born."

Amari again signals his awareness of social issues and injustices when speaking with the ARTT group. He is one of the most outspoken members of the group and the one who speaks about how adults restrict the freedom of children. Yet by sharing his father’s insights about racial discrimination in America, Amari also shows that he listens to knowledge wherever it comes from. 

"The Familiar. You walk the land you've always known."

Haley returns to the concept of the “Familiar” several times. She recognizes Ms. Laverne encouraging her students to look at their world in unfamiliar ways, which prompts her to examine the small details of life that she’d previously overlooked. In this passage, Haley again thinks about the Familiar by imagining what life was like for the Lenape people at the moment European settlers arrived and took their land. For Haley, this represents a moment of awakening, to see the injustices and social challenges around her that are sometimes hidden when going about everyday life. 

"I didn't even think about being white until the first time I met you, Amari."

An earlier ARTT discussion on racial discrimination left Ashton upset as Amari walked out of the room, equally upset. In this passage, Ashton has the opportunity to share his own perspectives and experiences of race. He acknowledges that his move to Brooklyn brought along with it a new awareness of race, as he found himself to be one of the few White people in his school. Ashton’s willingness to share his point of view and vulnerabilities fosters bonds rather than divisions within the ARTT group.

"That way you felt like you were on the outside of everything? Like you weren't a part of it? Well, that's the way a whole lot of people feel every day."

Holly understands and empathizes with Ashton’s explanation that he only became aware of his racial identity after moving to Brooklyn, but Holly helps him understand what she believes people of color in society must face on a continual basis. Her intention in doing so is not to belittle Ashton or his feelings. On the contrary, the ARTT group’s discussion immediately moves on to explain that Ashton’s experience feeling like an outsider makes him firmly accepted by his ARTT friends, who each deal with their own ways of feeling set apart. 

"Always remember, when you are with your people, you are home." 

Esteban reads a line from one of his father’s poems, and it strikes a chord with his classmates. Each one of them struggles with feeling outcast in some way but finds support and solace within the ARTT group. Haley listens to the line and is especially affected. Struggling with being separated from her imprisoned father and feeling afraid to tell the truth of her story to others, Haley is overcome with emotion when she hears the line. 

"The story of his number was one I'd lock away in a room and write on the door of that memory The End." 

After a visit in which Haley’s father refuses to come out to see her in the prison visitor’s room, Haley is crushed. Her father is profusely apologetic afterwards, and on the next visit, the two reconcile. Haley tells him she understands, though inwardly she is still hurt and confused. Once again utilizing the language of storytelling, she expresses her desire to forget in the future that her father was ever in prison. These thoughts foreshadow a later conversation with her friend Holly, who convinces Haley that she is looking for forgiveness rather than forgetting when it comes to her father. 

"She thinks people here will say, 'Go back to your country.' Even though this is her country."

When Tiago takes a turn sharing his story, he describes the discrimination his family has faced because of their skin color and because they speak Spanish in public. Tiago notes with irony that he and his mother have been told to go back to their country even though they are from Puerto Rico, which is a United States territory. The comment points to the absurdity of discrimination and provides a strong contrast with the supportive welcome Tiago receives from the ARTT group. 

"I thought about that army of ants, how they were coming together. Like us." 

Once again, a poem by Esteban’s father makes a deep impression on Haley. The poem is another that he has written while detained by immigration officials, and it uses the metaphor of an army of ants planning a revolution below ground to describe resistance to social injustice. The image of the ant is especially apt because it is small but has strength disproportionate to its size. Haley draws a comparison between the ants and the ARTT group, which also seems small and vulnerable but exemplifies great personal strength. 

"I didn't say anything. It felt strange. Weird. Rich?" 

After being teased for coming from a relatively well-off family, Holly reveals to Haley that she too has money, at least based on what Holly has overheard Kira and Haley’s uncle discussing. Haley is taken aback because the thought of having money seems so incongruous with the thrifty life she shares with her uncle. Haley is less concerned about having money and more with the revelation that the story of someone’s life might contain more than first meets the eye. 

"I felt lighter. Free somehow. Like I'd been carrying the weight of that story in me, not knowing it was heavy." 

Buoyed by the support she finds among the ARTT group, Haley finally works up the courage to tell her story. She utilizes a standard but apt metaphor to state that opening up about her story feels like a weight has been lifted off of her. In this moment, Haley also realizes that telling stories can be a way of freeing a person, drawing together the novel’s themes of storytelling, freedom, and personal growth. 

"Forgiveness, I thought. I want forgiveness. Standing there, I realized I'd first have to forgive my father. Not forget, but forgive." 

Haley reaches a pivotal realization that to build a relationship with her father, she must forgive him for multiple challenges and setbacks, including the death of her mother and his imprisonment. Haley did not realize this before, even though it was foreshadowed earlier in the novel. It took a push from Holly to help Haley reach this point, which emphasizes the novel’s recurring suggestion that individuals find strength in the harbor of their friends. 

"Tomorrow holds no promises but now is not the time for tears."

In a poignant moment after Ms. Laverne reveals that Esteban and his family have returned to the Dominican Republic, Haley listens again to the final poem by Esteban’s father that her friend read in class. The last line of the poem is also the end of the chapter, giving it special attention. The line focuses on strength and resolve but without denying the reality of challenges. Coming near the end of the novel, the line also summarizes how the ARTT group has grown to reach more mature perspectives about themselves and their worlds.

"That's us, he said. And that's a harbor." 

At the end of the last ARTT session, Amari takes one of his drawings and tacks it to the wall of the group’s meeting room. The gesture is a symbolic one on two levels. First, it suggests that the importance of the room will live on even after the formal meetings end, with the picture remaining behind as a reminder of the group’s time together. Second, because the picture is of a harbor, it points to the novel’s title as well as Ms. Laverne’s suggestion that the ARTT group harbor each other through their friendships.