Category: Culture
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HNBA Meeting Tonight at 7:00 PM
We hope you’ll come out for our final HNBA meeting of the season (before our summer break) on Tuesday, June 14th at 7:00 PM. To get the Zoom link: We’ll hear from the Citizens Union about what is on the horizon for redistricting City Council that could change whether or not you are considered part of…
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Head to The Schomburg
Alison Saar, the artist behind the Harriet Tubman sculpture at St. Nicholas and Frederick Douglass Blvds. has created a work based on the playwright, journalist, activist, and lesbian, Lorraine Hansberry. Saar, who also did the jazz era sculptures of Harlem residents that are on the Metro-North platforms at the 125th Street Station, will unveil the…
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Opportunity Hoarding and Segregation in 21st Century America
Residential segregation manages to color just about every facet of US life. It fuels the country’s sprawling suburban development and the massive carbon footprint that lifestyle demands. It underpins struggling public schools and the increasingly toxic politics around them. It turns would-be neighbors into feared strangers by politicians like Kristin Jordan who oppose the vision of…
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Juneteenth Block Party
Saturday, June 18th, Noon to 6pm, join a free block party at 131st Street and FDB. All Welcome! HBCU College Fair Tomorrow! Join the 28th Precinct at an HBCU college fair. 2271 8th Avenue (St. Nicholas between 122/123), Noon to 4PM. All welcome. Free. Loans, Mortgages, and Insurance Learn more about loans, mortgages, and insurance…
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Who’s Going To Represent You/Harlem In Albany?
The New York State 68th Assembly District primary is coming up. Whoever wins the primary will likely be your representative in Albany. If you live in the area shown on the map below, make sure to register for the candidates’ forum tomorrow (Thursday, June 9th, at 7:00 PM) using this link: https://fordham.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIocuGtqD0oEtXpPxQTWfT54jA20YivmtWL Junteenth! GothamToGo has…
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Jimi Hendrix in Harlem: September 5th, 1969
On September 5th, 1969 Jimi Hendrix performed at the Harlem Street Fair at the corner of 139th Street and Lenox Avenue. Only 26, Hendrix had wanted to reestablish a relationship with Black fans “my people”. He arrived characteristically late only to find that the crowd had dwindled to a few hundred Harlem residents. Harlem had been…
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Home To Harlem
Join the Maysles Cinema in celebrating our community: June 9-June 30, 2022“Home to Harlem” presents Harlem through an archival lens as both an actual home for Black citizens and families and as a location in the popular imagination of African Americans, by exploring the various intersections of documentary, amateur films, home movies, musical shorts, nontheatrical…
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Poop and Harlem’s Hidden COVID Numbers
In September 2020, New York began to sample and test wastewater at New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) wastewater plants for COVID-19. If you recall an earlier post on wastewater and New York – https://hnba.nyc/where-does-my-sewage-go/ – you may remember that virtually all of Harlem’s wastewater (basically anything that goes down your drain or…
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Memorial Day
As always, this weekend we remember the men and women of Harlem who served in the armed forces. As many of us know, many Harlem service members had (and have) to fight discrimination within their ranks and their country, in addition to fighting the enemies of the United States. The 369th, or Harlem Hellfighters, who…
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His Harlem Wife
eBay has a very rare piece of ephemera, a theater card for the film “His Harlem Wife” (1944), which was a rerelease of the 1938 film, titled “Life Goes On”: The publicity material shows a highly stylized art deco set: Note how the repetitive banding (typical of Art Deco) is placed on columns, shelving, light…
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Cotton Comes to Harlem
The ground-breaking film Cotton Comes to Harlem featured a number of live action scenes that were shot here in our community. In one chase scene, after the robbery of the community’s investment money, the lead characters head away from a fundraising rally, and pass a building with a set of very distinctive windows: The relatively…
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Langston Hughes and Brian Benjamin
I was struck by where former Lt. Governor Brian Benjamin chose to announce he was withdrawing his name from the ballot in the upcoming election. He made the announcement through a video he posted on Twitter near the spot where Arnold Newman photographed Langston Hughes in 1960. This location (overlooking 5th Avenue) was also featured…
