Paper Airplane Project




The first time I visited Harlem, a neighbourhood whose image is plagued by prejudice and fear, it was six months into my stay in New York. A few days after that first visit I went back, and on a grass field in a local park I started to make paper airplanes. The streets were quieter and more peaceful than I had imagined, and I desired to interact with the local people. The paper I used to fold the paper airplanes was the type used for writing Braille.The papers had the phrase "Why do we fear love" written on them in Braille. As I started to fold and fly the paper airplanes a couple of kids came to join me. And before I knew it the park was filled with people folding and flying paper airplanes! Before long the grass was covered with white planes that had flown through the Harlem skies. One woman called, "Where is this place?" Then someone called back, "This is the Peace Airport!" Hearing him say that I imagined he must have felt peace and happiness flying those planes under that bright sky. As I listened to this, the most beautiful conversation I have ever heard, I could hear my own high walls of fear and prejudice crumble away.