The city’s Parks Department opened a new photography exhibition at Central Park’s Arsenal Gallery that displays more than 40 archived photographs from the department’s collection. Called “Streets In Play: Katrina Thomas, NYC Summer 1968,” the exhibit features images taken by the late photographer Katrina Thomas, who in 1968 was hired by NYC Mayor John Lindsay and tasked with capturing the city’s summer initiative, “Playstreets,” in which residential blocks were closed to vehicles and instead equipped for recreational activity.
The Arsenal Gallery is located on the third floor of NYC Park’s Central Park headquarters at Fifth Avenue and 64th Street. The hours are Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Admission to the exhibition is free, and more information on the gallery can be found on the department’s website. “Streets in Play” will be on display through September 2.
Tree In The Middle
This is the only tree I know of in Harlem that has grown in the middle of a sidewalk.
Safe, Family Bicycle Ride from Harlem to Astor Place
Join Transportation Alternatives for a bicycle ride along the newly-extended route for NYC DOT’s Summer Streets! For the first time in city history, the DOT will be extending Summer Streets Uptown into East Harlem.
To celebrate, we will be hosting a ride that starts in Harlem at the State Building, travel along Adam Clayton Powell and then heads east on 110th Street toward Park Avenue. We will then ride Park Avenue all the way down to Astor Place where TA will have free bike valet so we can all hang out and build together.
Along the route, we plan to highlight various campaigns our TABxUP and TAMAC activist committees are currently working on (Central Harlem Bikeway, Bike Crosstown and Fifth Avenue). We hope you can all join us!
This free, family-friendly event will start at 9 a.m. on August 13 by the ACP State Office building. We’ll meet at the Citi Bike station, near the corner of W 125th St & Adam Clayton Powell Jr Blvd, and depart at 9:15 a.m. for a 90-minute ride down Summer Streets to Astor Place.
Please make to register and share with your friends!
“They can’t read our minds” is one of the mantras of HNBA and should be one of any engaged citizen. Reporting everything from leaking hydrants, to rats, to illegal drug sales helps our city respond proportionately.
Unfortunately, the use of 311 and 911 is disproportionately impacted by many factors that are often rolled up into the term “social capital”. Essentially, people with privilege are more likely to complain or notify authorities because they identify more expansively with the landscape, are socially rewarded for reporting, and do not fear blowback from authorities (and the police in particular). All of this is coupled with the very real fear that a simple report to 311/911 could potentially lead to a police encounter that could escalate.
How then do we report drug sales and drug usage so NYC can respond to this quality of life and public safety issue appropriately?
You can [anonymously] report the illegal sale of drugs, chronic drug dealing, and individuals involved in such activities, in public areas.
Call 311 for assistance by phone or use this link (and please, bookmark it):
I love this photo of a Harlem Hellfighter, posed on an NYS Police Harley, with his rifle drawn. The sunglasses and crisp uniform make this an iconic photo of professional pride.
HNBA’s Vice President, Shawn Hill, presented at NYC’s Open Data week this past winter. The presentation is now up on NYC Open Data’s YouTube channel.
The video looks at how the De Blasio administration obscured the inequitable distribution of shelters in New York City and compares the distribution of family shelters vs. single adult shelters.
Job Opportunity at Concrete Safaris
Concrete Safaris is hiring! If you’re 18+, you can apply to be a Public Health AmeriCorps Member. 24 community members will be hired and get public health, leadership, community organizing, and career development training.
On September 13th (Tuesday) at 6:00, we’ll gather at East 129th Street and 5th Avenue (south-east corner) to celebrate the unveiling of Ann Petry Place.
The acclaimed African-American author, Ann Petry, lived at 2 East 129th Street when she engaged in much of her activist writing for African American newspapers such as The Amsterdam News and The People’s Voice, and The Crisis. 2 East 129th Street was also her home when she wrote the seminal novel: The Street.
This novel, The Street, was the first novel by an African-American woman to sell a staggering 1.5 million copies. With time, The Street has become a canonical text that continues to be widely read throughout the United States as a literary exploration of the grinding and oppressive impact that systemic racism and sexism in mid-century America had on Harlem residents, and African-American women in particular.
Ann Petry stands as a crucial bridge between activists and writers from the Harlem Renaissance with those of Harlem’s Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the 1950’s and beyond.
We hope you will plan on attending the unveiling and meet Liz Petry, Ann Petry’s daughter, as well as a number of your local officials.
Bethel Gospel Assembly’s 119th Street Side
A dedication to the school that is now the Bethel Gospel Assembly Church, on East 119th Street.
Below is a view of the church from Marcus Garvey Park (looking south, across 120th Street:
Make sure to plan on attending the virtual and/or in-person events during Harlem Week 2022.
Sponsored by The Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce, HARLEM WEEK is now 48 years old. Since its founding, the festival has grown to showcase the diaspora of African, Caribbean, Hispanic and European cultures, alongside Harlem’s rich social, economic, and political history.
There will be 10 days of live and virtual celebrations of the people, arts, culture, and entertainment that reaffirm Harlem as the source of this nation’s cultural heartbeat. The theme this year is “INSPIRATION. IMPACT. LEGACY,” and there will be events for seniors, teens, families, music lovers, film buffs, live performances, virtual dance parties, as well as a jobs and careers fair.
Virtual Dance at Home Party every night from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., beginning Friday, August 12, 2022. The dance parties will feature DJs spinning a wide spectrum of music that definitely will make you want to dance!
Uptown Saturday Nite Virtual Concert at 7 p.m. on Saturday, August 13, 2022.
Charles B Rangel Systemic Racism Summit at noon (ET) on Tuesday, August 16, 2022. This summit will feature the tough discussions the entire country needs to continue. It will offer an unfiltered examination of systemic racism in our country and probe the effects on the African-American, Caribbean-American, Hispanic, and Asian-American populations.
Economic Development Day on Wednesday, August 17, 2022. The live and virtual summit will feature key discussions on community development, cyber security, digital development, and inclusion of small businesses.
Virtual Health Summit at noon (ET) on Thursday, August 18, 2022. This summit will bring together some of the foremost medical experts to discuss the effects of health issues and disparities on communities of color, including the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The program also will cover alternative medicine modalities and mental health issues
Arts & Culture/Broadway Virtual Summit at 3 p.m. (ET) on Thursday, August 18, 2022. This summit features conversations with actors, producers, directors, and those behind the scenes, discussing The Impact of Building a Culture of Diversity on Broadway–Environmental Justice
Panelists include: Aaliytha Stevens, Founding member of Black Theatre Coalition
Brian Moreland, Producer “Thoughts of A Colored Man”/ “The Piano Lesson”
Khady Kamara, Executive Director, Second Stage Theater
Gennean Scott, Diversity Officer, The Broadway League
Shanta Thake, Chief Artistic Officer, Lincoln Center
Healing, Joy, and Liberation: Mental Health and the ArtsVirtual Gathering at 8 p.m. (ET) on Thursday, August 18, 2022. Presented by The Apollo Theater; the CUNY School of Medicine at the City College of New York; the American Composers Orchestra; the National Black Theatre, and the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.This event features artistic rituals for healing, visual art, musical performances, and a panel discussion with mental health experts to encourage participants to get, keep, and spread joy.
And if you’re anywhere near Harlem, be sure to check out these in-person events:
Percy Sutton Harlem 5K Run & Anti Gun Violence Health Walk at 8 a.m. on Saturday, August 13, 2022. Sponsored by New York Road Runners and The Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce, the event starts at 135th Street and Nicholas Avenue.
Great Jazz on the Great Hillfrom 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, August 13, 2022, at Central Park’s Great Hill.
Jobs & Career Fair from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, August 17, 2022, at City College of New York.
HARLEM WEEK/Imagenation Outdoor Film Festival on Wednesday, August 17, 2022, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Richard Rodgers Amphitheater in Marcus Garvey Park.
The two-day NYC Children’s Festival begins Saturday, August 20, 2022, from noon to 5 p.m. at the Howard Bennett Playground on West 135th Street, between Malcolm X Boulevard and 5th This live event for children, ages 5-12, and their family members, will include storytelling, dance performances, step shows, theater, poetry and vocalist. There also will be arts & crafts, a double-dutch competition, face painting and information on health services.
The Alex Trebek Children’s Spelling Bee will also be held August 20, 2022, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. for children in first through fifth grades. The event will take place at the Schomburg Center For Research In Black Culture.
While everyone, even disgruntled drivers, acknowledges that the return to twice a week alternate side parking reduces the trash on our streets, reduces the rat population, and adds to community pride, who knew that it also impacts the presence of guns in our community?
While alternate side parking may seem like an annoyance to those who own cars, but all New Yorkers want cleaner streets. To that end, DSNY’s mechanical brooms are the best tool to clean the most trash, filth, and feces. As DSNY says, “We just want people to follow the law so that we can get the streets clean.”
And those street sweepers? Their mechanical brooms can pick up to 1,500 pounds of trash each go-around. And cleaner communities are safer communities.
The Amsterdam News reports that:
“Some of the spaces I’ve seen [trash is] overwhelming, to the point where you can’t even vaguely consider using the space, because of overgrowth of vegetation and the accumulation of trash—small trash items become massive trash items, they’ll become abandoned cars, and abandoned appliances and abandoned furniture,” said Dr. Charles Branas, chair of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. “So to the extent that that can be changed, that’s a real structural change of benefit to communities that brings people closer to their local spaces in their neighborhood and to each other, which lead to all kinds of benefits down the road.”
Branas refers to it as the “busy streets theory,” a counter to the “broken windows theory” that argues that bustling neighborhoods indicate safety and comfort for the locals. Clean streets play a part in encouraging residents to leave their homes to participate in community efforts.
Additionally, Branas mentioned the practice of alternate side parking could potentially offer an inadvertent byproduct for flushing out illegal firearm stashing.
“[In] a couple of the studies we did, one of the mechanisms for the storage of illegal guns is to park a car—often an abandoned car as well—in front of abandoned buildings or lots, and to put illegal firearms in that car,” he said. “So to the extent that you can regularly move that car, there’s opportunities to also disrupt illegal guns in neighborhoods.”
The Moth x Daughters of the Movement Date and Time Tuesday, August 9, 2022, 7 – 8:30 PM End times are approximate. Events may end early or late. Location
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Fully accessible to wheelchairs Free Event Register Event Details Tinted headshots of Gina Belafonte, Hasna Muhammad, Dominique Sharpton and Suzanne Kay.
Join us for an evening of storytelling and conversation with The Moth, featuring Gina Belafonte, Suzanne Kay, Hasna Muhammad, and Dominique Sharpton.
ABOUT THIS EVENT | IN-PERSON
The Moth is true stories, told live and without notes. Gina Belafonte (daughter of Harry Belafonte), Suzanne Kay (daughter of Diahann Carroll), Hasna Muhammad (daughter of Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee), and Dominique Sharpton (daughter of Al Sharpton) are Daughters of the Movement. They represent a group of women who sat at the feet of those who were on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement. They carry the oral history, cultural values and wisdom passed down to them by some of the revolutionary leaders who turned the tide of American history. Join us at the Schomburg Center for an evening of Moth-style storytelling and a conversation illustrating a legacy of sisterhood.
PARTICIPANTS |
Artivist Gina Belafonte is the Executive Director of Sankofa.org a non-profit which educates, motivates, and activates artists and allies in service of grassroots movements and equitable change. An award-winning producer, director, and cultural organizer, Gina is driven by the most urgent social and political issues of our time using art as a tool to fulfill the mission of Sankofa.org. As a visiting professor, lecturer, and public speaker, Gina works with diverse artists, activists, and organizations worldwide to promote cultural and civic engagement and has assisted in mobilizing one of the largest cultural gatherings of artists in the world.
Suzanne Kay is a writer and filmmaker currently working on a documentary about her mother, the late actress Diahann Carroll, among other projects. She produced and co-wrote a feature film, Cape of Good Hope, which won numerous awards and nominations, including Honorable Mention for the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, National Board of Review, and NAACP Image Awards. She has been published in Huffington Post, the Southampton Review and BigCityLit.
Hasna Muhammad is a visual artist, writer, and educator whose work focuses on family, social justice, and the human condition. As an advocate for education as justice, Hasna provides professional preparation for executive leadership, diversity management, and community engagement for the purpose of diversifying educational and political leadership forces. Hasna was a 2018-2019 Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Fellow.
Dominique Sharpton is an actress, producer, and activist. As the National Director of Membership for National Action Network, one of the nation’s oldest legacy civil rights organizations with more than 100 chapters and 40,000 members across the country, Dominique works to activate and engage the next generation of community activists and impact systemic change through local community development. She also produces live cultural events to activate and inspire change.
The Moth is true stories, told live and without notes. We celebrate the ability of true, personal storytelling to illuminate both the diversity and commonality of human experience. Our work allows people all over the world and from all walks of life: astronauts, students, a dental hygienist, a hotdog eating champion, a mechanic, exonerated prisoners, veterans, Nobel laureates and everyone in between, to share their stories on stage in front of a live audience. Through live and virtual shows, storytelling workshops, a podcast, Peabody Award-winning Radio Hour, and The New York Times best-selling books, The Moth brings the power of personal storytelling to millions of people each year—creating community and building empathy around the world.
PUBLIC NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER
IN-PERSON | By registering for this event, you are acknowledging that an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present. By attending an in-person program at The New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, you voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold The New York Public Library, its Trustees, officers, agent and employees liable for any illness or injury. If you have symptoms consistent with COVID-19 or suspect you have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive, please stay home.
FIRST COME, FIRST SEATED | Events are free and open to all, but due to space constraints registration is requested. Registered guests are given priority check-in 15 to 30 minutes before start time. After the event starts all registered seats are released regardless of registration, so we recommend that you arrive early.
GUESTS | Please note that holding seats in the Langston Hughes Auditorium is strictly prohibited and there is no food or drinks allowed anywhere in the Schomburg Center.
AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING | Programs are photographed and recorded by the Schomburg Center. Attending this event indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any all purposes of the New York Public Library.
Mark Your Calendar!! Heart to Heart Concert is LIVE again from Symphony Space!HEART TO HEART CONCERT – The Sounds of Gospel! Date: Saturday, September 17, 2022 Time: The concert begins at 6:00pm EST Location: Peter Norton Symphony Space Address: 2537 Broadway, NY, NY (Located on the southwest corner of 95th St and Broadway)
We’re back and ready to “Raise the Praise!” Labor of Love Association hosts Heart to Heart Concert – New York’s Premiere Event for Authentic Traditional/Contemporary Gospel Music!
What A Thrilling Line-Up! Our Featured Performers for the 2022 Concert The Labor of Love Ensemble, Reverend Vandell Atkins, Brother Jospeh Ellis, Brother Alson Farley, Jr, Elder George Heyward, The Richard Curtis Singers, and Brother Henry Mitchell
This year Heart to Heart presents, “The Sounds of Gospel!” Join us as we celebrate the origins of Gospel, one of the most prolific genres of American music! Don’t miss this evening that will take you on a journey through the phases of Gospel from the early days of “call and response” to the energizing sounds of contemporary Gospel music!
Plan now to be with us on Saturday, September 17 for an evening of high-energy gospel music and a fascinating trip down musical memory lane! You don’t want to miss this year’s concert experience. Tickets are available now.
We can’t wait to see you in person in September! The Labor of Love Ensemble
This summer has two primaries instead of one. We chose candidates for statewide races like Assembly and governor in June. On August 23, we’ll choose nominees for Congress and the State Senate. Early voting runs between August 13 but, before you head to the polls, however, make sure you double check your polling location using the city Board of Elections poll site locator tool — and keep in mind that, often, your early voting site will be different than your election day site.
Where’s Your District, and Who’s Running?If you’re not sure where your new political districts are after the big political reshuffling earlier this year, find out with this redistricting tool and interactive map. You can also use the map to find out who’s running for each office. Or, you can find your sample ballot from the city BOE — with a list of candidates who will appear for each contest — by plugging in your address here, then clicking the dark blue “View Sample Ballot” button on the right hand side of the page.
Note that a potentially primary-changing election law fluke last week that will effectively turn August’s election into an open primary.Because of a loophole opened during the court-mandated redistricting reshuffling this year, voters can switch parties and vote in whatever primary they choose in August — and can do so up until or on primary day. That means a voter registered as a Republican right now could, in theory, switch their party to Democrat and vote in the Democratic primary this month, for example. In a low-turnout primary, it could have a major effect on races’ outcomes. Here’s a guide from WNYC/Gothamist about how to switch parties, and the limitations of the rule change.
Patch.com is reporting that plans to revive Lincoln Jail (on 110th Street between 5th and Lenox) a women’s “trauma informed” jail has run into opposition from local and national activists.
Most prominent among them is, perhaps, Angela Davis, who has signed a letter opposing the creation of a Lincoln Jail for Women as have hundreds of others. You can see the signatories here:
The West Harlem Community Organization is encouraging families in 10026, 10027, 10030, 10037, and 10039 to check out their Head Start and Pre-School Program:
