Culture – Page 53 – The Harlem Neighborhood Block Association

High Times and Hot Times in Homo Harlem, 1920-1990

Posted on August 9, 2020August 9, 2020 by Join HNBA

Historian Michael Henry Adams leads a virtual tour of Lesbian and Gay life in the historic African American cultural capital, where we’ll meet personalities living and lost and see landmarks long gone and still standing that illuminate the a fabled part of New York. Past and Present LGBTQ+ Harlemites have played a leading role in defining Harlem’s artistic significance.

To join the virtual tour: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/high-times-and-hot-times-in-homo-harlem-1920-1990-tickets-114454941812?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch

For a short 11 minute look at one of Harlem’s great gay performers – Gladys Bentley – see:

400 Miles to Freedom

Posted on August 8, 2020August 9, 2020 by Join HNBA

If you’ve ever been curious about internal race relations within the Jewish community (in Israel and here in in the US), 400 Miles to Freedom is a great introduction. I’m including it here because of some wonderful shots of our neighborhood in the film:

In 1984, the Beta Israel, a secluded 2,500-year-old community of observant Jews in the northern Ethiopian mountains, fled a dictatorship and began a secret and dangerous journey of escape. Co-director Avishai Mekonen, then a 10-year-old boy, was among them. 400 MILES TO FREEDOM follows his story as he breaks the 20 year silence around the brutal kidnapping he endured as a child in Sudan during his community’s exodus out of Africa, and in so doing explores issues of immigration and racial diversity in Judaism.

Average Building Height

Posted on August 7, 2020August 9, 2020 by Join HNBA

Carto has a map of NYC building heights where red is tall, and blue is short:

As you would expect, the lower half of Manhattan is mostly red, and Brooklyn is mostly blue.

If you zoom in on our neighborhood, you’ll typically see a mix of red and blue, with the projects being almost purely red areas:

Zooming in even more, you can see how the taller brownstones along Madison Avenue between 126/127 are taller (by one story) than the brownstones on 126th Street:

To zoom in and out yourself, explore this link:

https://public.carto.com/builder/6bb968c2-06ee-4e02-96d3-a912bc7a6da6/embed?state=%7B%22map%22%3A%7B%22ne%22%3A%5B40.741169225973046%2C-74.05136927962305%5D%2C%22sw%22%3A%5B40.83124105725294%2C-73.87833461165428%5D%2C%22center%22%3A%5B40.78622041213587%2C-73.96485194563866%5D%2C%22zoom%22%3A13%7D%7D

Harlem River Drive

Posted on August 6, 2020August 9, 2020 by Join HNBA

One of my favorite songs of all time, Harlem River Drive, can be found on Soundcloud as a repeatedly covered and remixed tune:

https://soundcloud.com/teza-cappuccino/harlem-river-drive-teza-cappuccino-edit

The Library of Congress has a great short of horse racing on Harlem River Drive. Note the Aquaduct Bridge with its full complement of masonry arches before the center arches were replaced with a steel span to permit boat traffic: