Local businesswoman Sade Tyler started to sell her products on a table in front of the old Tower Records building in East Village, Manhattan. Also, back when corporate brands did not offer products for women of color, she was the first to set up a beauty kiosk in Allby Square mall in downtown Brooklyn. This later led to a store in New York and now she delivers all across the US through her online business.
Originally from Nigeria, belonging to the Yoruba tribe, Sade is passionate about keeping old Yoruba traditions around beauty and skincare alive which she does through her African collection. The Yoruba traditional Goddess representing earthly beauty is Oshun who is the goddess of water, sensuality, fertility, beauty and love which is all reflected in all of Sades skincare products.
In line with Oshun values, Sade wants women of all colors to embrace and love their skin the way it is. She believes by giving our skin the care it needs with natural, nurturing products everyone’s inner beauty and sensuality will shine through.
Apart from running her own business Sade has also taught countless women of color to start and run their own small businesses, especially in the field of skincare and cosmetics.
The New York City Council approved a plan to name 127th Street and Malcolm X Blvd. in honor of Elijah Muhammad, the controversial late leader of the Nation of Islam. The exact phrase agreed upon was: “The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad Way”.
City Council Member Jordan was not deterred in her support for this co-naming by Elijah Muhammad’s anti-white and anti-semetic statements/rhetoric. Jordan who proposed the street naming for Muhammad, said the honor is “way overdue” and stated:
“It is actually not OK to erase Black leaders who are not pleasing to white people,” Jordan told her colleagues during the full City Council vote. “I profoundly vote aye on Elijah Muhammad Way.”
You are invited to join a virtual meeting with Yusef Salaam this Thursday at 7pm. After a district walk last Monday, Yusef has a good idea of East Harlem’s quality of life issues and concerns. We are hoping that after witnessing our street experience, Yusef will tell us more about what he intends to do, if elected to City Council.
Please help forward this email to your neighbors! When our neighbors are more informed about the election candidates, they will turn out to vote, and then we can effectively hold our officials accountable.
Quote from Yusef “This gives us the opportunity to be able to restore Harlem to the greatness that it is and could always be.” (read more here)
Note that if you have questions for Yusef, you can post your questions on the Q&A section of the webinar, or feel free to send them to me ahead of time.
Some great CONFIRMED news coming up for all of us at Marcus Garvey Park & there is more good stuff brewing.
FUNDING FOR INFRASTRUCTURE
1. $12 million designated by Mayor Adams for stone repair and rat abatement / awaiting information on timeline as this was recently announced.
2. $1.7 million allocated by City Council Member Kristin Richardson Jordan for “Green 2 Greener Initiative”/ sustainable energy solutions (we are working with her office & capital & planning offices at Parks now to finalize this plan)
3. $1.6 million committed by State Sen. Cordell Cleare for NW small playground / awaiting information on timeline as state funding moves more slowly than city funding
4. State of Good Repair Grant for repaving of the entire NW and SW sections of the park which will add new curbing, paver stones and (5) ADA entrances and fix the drainage issues inside the 123rd & MMPW entrance where the “lake” forms (expected to begin in early November 2023)
NEW HARLEM HORT HQ
— $50,000+ pledged by New York Junior League to finish needed work and open this to the public in June 2023
You may have noticed (2) greenhouses set up at the east end of the pool. Mike, Erick & I have been building out our plan to create a horticultural headquarters (HQ) that will do the following:
1. enable us to cultivate our own plants for Marcus Garvey & for the other (3) historic Harlem parks
2. enable us to offer free public horticulture programming (workshops, demonstrations, author talks, arts horticulture events, etc) by our Parks horticulture experts and with interested partners including GreenThumb, Partnerships for Parks, Harlem Grown, City Gardens Club, Horticultural Society & others
3. offer a meetup spot for the uptown gardening/hort community such as GreenThumb gardeners who have never had a central meet up site
4. create a hort volunteering meet up place where schedules can be posted, signup and pickup of tools, gloves, etc, can happen
5. offer a beautiful positive space for the community that can be used for events, meditation, etc.
$1.3 MILLION GRANT FROM MELLON FOUNDATION TO HARLEM GROWN
Harlem Grown submitted a grant to Mellon Foundation to provide support to Marcus Garvey as a cultural heritage site. This grant will provide the following:
1. support / fund new & existing community programming
2. support more public art in the park
3. support the mobile Harlem Grown teaching food kitchen in the park
4. support community engagement for the park
NEW COMMUNITY ROOM BY BALLFIELD TO BE AVAILABLE TO COMMUNITY PARTNERS / HARLEM LITTLE LEAGUE
The new comfort station between the ballfield and amphitheater has a community room inside of it that I can begin scheduling now for use by community partners such as Marcus Garvey Park Alliance, MMPCIA, Harlem Little League and others. Please contact me if your group wants to schedule time in the room for a meeting, community engagement forum, a membership recruitment event, etc. We are very excited to officially open this room with our great park partner — Harlem Little League in April as they kick off another season !
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
State NY Parks office has taken the lead working with me and our 2 parks groups to submit nomination paperwork for Marcus Garvey Park to be named to the National Register of Historic Places. We have moved forward to the next nomination round. If selected, this would provide more opportunities for needed funding such as for the acropolis.
ON POINT PARTNERSHIP REDUCES NEEDLES & MORE IN THE PARK
Our partnership with On Point, a drug treatment center on E. 126th, has helped us reduce the following:
1. # of needles in the park
2. the # of drug-addicted people choosing the park to inject/use
3. the # of people our PEP unit (Parks Enforcement Patrol) saves the lives of via NARCAN, which enables PEP to focus on its primary job of public safety
HARLEM EAT UP COMING TO THE PARK IN SEPTEMBER / OTHER KEY PROGRAMMING
I have been working with Harlem Eat Up to move their great food event from Morningside Park to Marcus Garvey Park, which is confirmed. Red Rooster’s own local & global celebrity Marcus Samuelsson created this local focus on great Harlem restaurants. The official event will take place September 9-10. We are finalizing logisitics and working with our Parks special events team. I will keep you informed on this great news.
Other key programming of our April – November schedule includes events being planned / confirmed per below:
MARCH – Bethel Gospel Social Justice & Community Volunteer Event
APRIL – Earth Day Community Volunteer Event
MAY – Mother’s Day Gardening Day
JUNE – Harlem HQ Opening Weekend and later in the month the 3rd Annual Juneteenth Festival
JULY – Classical Theatre of Harlem with annual free Shakespeare in the park & Jazzmobile Fridays
AUGUST – Jazzmobile Fridays continue & Charlie Parker Jazz Festival
SEPTEMBER – 3rd Annual Opening Night of MET Opera
OCTOBER – 2nd Annual Halloween Fright Night
TRAIL BOARDS FOR THE PARK
I have submitted for budgeting approval for (2-3) trail boards — bulletin boards – to be installed in the park to share news from Parks / city agencies and our (2) park groups, Marcus Garvey Park Alliance & MMPCIA with the public.
VOLUNTEERS
Please consider volunteering for the park as we always need interested people from the park community, partner park groups, schools, churches, etc, to help our small staff with the following:
Gothamist and WNYC are reporting on the quiet closing of a disfunctional, dangerous, and troubled shelter on Wards Island.
The shelter which took up a few floors of the NYS psychiatric center (pictured above) was part of former Governor Cuomo’s family legacy – with his sister taking the helm most recently.
Tweet Regarding The 25th Precinct Community Council Meeting Gets Thousands of Views
100+ Harlem residents came out last night to precinct 25 to demand more police presence. We urge officials to set aside personal ideologies & listen to what residents want-safer streets for our children. We want to end mass incarceration but we can’t put the cart before the horse pic.twitter.com/5TzXbhJdjh
— Harlem East Block Association (@harlemeastblock) February 17, 2023
From Kioka Jackson (the 25th Precinct Community Council President):
Good Morning Friends,
I just wanted to stop in and say thank you for making last night’s meeting a success. There was a ton of things discussed and I am sending affirmation that all of your concerns were heard. When we said that you wouldn’t hear a resolution last night, it didn’t mean that we wouldn’t be doing our best to find resolution for the things within the control that we have. I am confident that the 25th Precinct’s Commanding Officer and his team are taking all things into consideration.
The word of the evening was: ACTIVATE! One of the ways that we find resolve together is strategically creating an action plan and executing it. Together we can make change! When we come together our voices are heard, and work can get done. Our District Leader agreed to work with community members to help level your concerns up to those who need to hear and see it. This is a great start! Because I know her well – I know she stands by her word.
Let me thank Shawn Hill and his team for sharing the word for community members to come out and speak up! Let’s have the same energy for our ENTIRE area! The same community issues and grievances effect the whole neighborhood. TOGETHER WE ARE STRONGER!
I have vowed for the last couple of months that if we could continue to have a vibrant, full group that I will continue to bring requested voices to the table. Last night a huge request was for more resources, more Officers. Next month, I am inviting the a few Chiefs to the table. Because of the large group, we will need a bigger space – location to be announced.
Lastly, let me repeat that we may not all agree but we can respectfully disagree. My team is empathetic to all concerns and is up for the challenge to foster positive change. We can’t do that without you. We are also respectful to people’s personal grievances regarding elected officials but in this particular meeting it is not the place to address it. We are a bi-partisan entity of the NYPD charted by New York City. This not being a part of our meeting doesn’t mean that we agree or disagree – it’s just not the space where we can allow it.
I am looking forward to all the good work that is about to happen!
Good Things!
Kioka Jackson
HNBA Members Notice Increased Police Presence
A number of HNBA members, particularly near Madison/126 have reported increased police presence after Wednesday’s meeting at the 25th Precinct:
Thanks for your help [25th Precinct]. Please let everyone know that their efforts are paying off. Let’s hope there is sustainability
Academy of St. Paul & St. Ann to Close
The Academy of St. Paul & St. Ann, located at 117 E 188th St. in Manhattan., is slated to close this school year along with 11 other Catholic schools in NYC.
Lessons from 2022
Join East Harlem’s Ny Whitaker tomorrow for a conversation about lessons learned from the 2022 elections:
It’s not every day that you have a chance to find a product that is co-branded with space and Harlem. Ebay has a Harlem Spaceman watch up for $500. Note how the word “Spaceman” is in funky 70’s spacey font, whereas the word “Harlem” is in an Art Deco (think Harlem Renaissance) font.
Here’s the ALL CAPS copy on the ad:
THIS AUCTION IS FOR A VERY RARE SPACEMAN GENTS WATCH . CIRCA 1974 . SWISS AUTOMATIC MOVEMENT (IT CAN ALSO BE WOUND MANUALLY AS WELL AS BEING AUTOMATIC). THIS WAS DESIGNED BY ANDRE LE MARQUAND AS A FOLLOW UP TO HIS FIRST INSPIRATION BASED AROUND THE ASTRONAUTS HELMETS USED IN THE MOON LANDINGS IN 1969 . THIS INCREDIBLE AND UNUSUAL WATCH IS CERTAINLY A REAL EYECATCHER AND GETTING VERY SOUGHT AFTER .
THE DIAL ON THIS IS BLACK WITH LUMINOUS BATONS AND A DATE WINDOW AT 6 O CLOCK QUICK SET. THE DIAL IS ORIGINAL. THE CRYSTAL IS ORIGINAL GOT SOME LIGHT SCRATCH.
THE CHROMIUM CASE GOT SOME LIGHT SCRATCH.
THE BRACELET IS IN VERY GOOD CONDITION AND TOTALLY ORIGINAL TO THIS WATCH AND COMPLETE. THIS WATCH IS RUNNING PERFECTLY AND HOLDING TIME WELL . THIS IS A VERY RARE AND UNUSUAL WATCH READY TO WEAR .
Large Landlords vs. Small Landlords
An interesting study on eviction filings that compares eviction filings on the basis of rental portfolio size is out from Housing Matters. The study concluded that:
Promote policies that incentivize capital investment by local residents and stakeholders, whose social relations in the community may be a more effective strategy for maintaining housing affordability.
The study reveals that “Large landlords filed evictions 186 percent more often and medium landlords filed 55 percent more often than small landlords.” This is driven by ownership structure, Gomory explains. “Filing rates before a sale were similar across properties, but filing rates for buildings bought by large owners quadrupled in the sale year and then remained higher than before.” The authors attribute this in part to the relationships between landlords and tenants. “Opportunities for informal decisionmaking made it less likely for small landlords to file an eviction; arms-length relationships with tenants and bureaucratic management practices allowed evictions from large landlords to be more instrumental.”
1940’s Tax Photo of 1883 Madison Avenue (east side of Marcus Garvey Park)
From The New York Times, August 25, 1991, Section 10, Page 5:
THERE must be some golden proportion for urban squares. The size and landscaping of some seem to be in absolute harmony with their surroundings, while others divide rather than unify.
Take Mount Moris Park, between 100th and 120th Streets, running from Madison Avenue to a line just west of Fifth Avenue. The western edge of the square is still largely residential, but the eastern edge is now down to two lone rowhouses as North General Hospital expands, eliminating what had been a solid block of century-old brownstones.
The park, opened in the 1860’s, is dominated by a central mass of rock rising perhaps 75 feet and topped with a fire lookout tower erected in 1856. Perhaps because it was so large, or perhaps because of the tower, the rock was never removed. Development came not long after the improvement of the Park Avenue railroad line and the erection of the Third Avenue Elevated, both in the 1870’s.
In 1881, the Real Estate Chronicle said “Madison Avenue in the immediate vicinity of mt. Morris Park is destined to be the place par excellence for elegant residents such as are needed by those people who, though of a refined home and pleasant surroundings, detest the hubbub and noise in other portions of the island.”
Thomas Treacy, an East Harlem builder, acquired the east side of Madison Avenue facing the park between 122d and 123d Streets and in 1882 completed a row of 10 houses there. The northern five were designed by Charles Romeyn, the southern five by Charles Baxter, but they were similar enough to be mistaken for a uniform row from a single hand.
Each house had a three-sided bay window running up the facade, a high stoop and carved panels of slightly varying design. The row was numbered 1883 to 1901 Madison Avenue and the side street elevations of the corner houses were rendered in deep red brick, a rich contrast with the chocolate-colored brownstone facing.
The earliest residents were fairly prosperous. No. 1891 was occupied by the family of Charles L. Dimon Jr., president of the Boston, New York and Southern Steamship Company. Some of the new residents already lived in Harlem, among them William Hannam. He had a flooring business on Union Square and he moved to 1883 Madison Avenue from an older brownstone at 54 East 124th Street.
By 1900, the Mount Morris Park area was almost completely built up with brownstones, a few churches and a few apartment houses. But because of the rock formation the residents on the east side were cut off, at least visually, from those on the west side. What the residents on the east side could see, though, was the giant new iron viaduct of the railroad up Park Avenue, right behind them, which was elevated in the mid-1890’s. It cast a pall over the nearby streets.
In 1906, the Hospital for Joint Diseases was established in a brownstone at 1919 Madison Avenue. By 1924 a hospital complex covered the blockfront between 123d and 124th.
In 1938, Father Divine, the religious leader, bought 1887 to 1889 Madison Avenue as his organization’s retreat. Gradually the residential character of the east side of Mount Morris Park began to disintegrate, but the west side remained fairly intact. In the 50’s, a public school was built on Madison Avenue between 120th and 121st Streets.
In 1971, the Landmarks Preservation Commission included the buildings on the west side in a Mount Morris Park Historic District, noting “the survival of a substantially unbroken row of handsome residences . . . is in itself rare in Manhattan.” The 122d-to-123d-Street rowhouses on Madison Avenue were still intact, all with their original stoops.
IN 1979, North General Hospital took over the buildings of the Hospital for Joint Diseases; it is just finishing a new hospital building on the Madison Avenue blockfront between 121st and 122d Streets. It is also assembling the 122d-to-123d-Street block for a low- and middle-income co-op housing project. Demolition of the brownstones there began in the mid-1980’s.
Now there are only two brownstones of the original 10, Nos. 1883 and 1887. No. 1887 is owned by the hospital, but 1883, at the 122d Street corner, is owned by Beula Brown. An attempt to reach her by telephone failed, but Reinaldo Higgins, a spokesman for the hospital, says that it is negotiating with the owner.
The residents on the west side of the square are nervous about institutional expansion in their neighborhood. According to Jeffrey Roualt, a neighborhood resident and counsel to the 500-member Mount Morris Park Community Association, the group has met with the landmarks agency to press for designation of the unprotected edges of the square.
But it is hard to imagine that the last two vestiges of the Victorian era on the east side of Mount Morris Park will remain standing much longer.
Below is a map showing how many brownstones once lined the east side of Marcus Garvey Park, with the Hospital for Joint Diseases between 123/124.
The view of 1883 Madison Ave, today:
Opportunities from the Manhattan DA
The Manhattan DA’s office is excited to announce that as of January 30th, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has begun accepting applications for the 2023 High School Summer Internship Program. The application is currently open to current sophomores, juniors, and seniors, who live or go to school in Manhattan. The deadline for applying is March 1st at 5 pm. This rigorous internship provides an insider’s view of the criminal justice system. Participants have the opportunity to engage in workshops and discussions about the role of the District Attorney, civic engagement, leadership, and more.
The New York Daily News is reporting that Council Member Jordan may have broken the law by paying for a campaign flyer using public money. The flyer encouraged people to join her reelection bid using money that should have been spent on community issues.
The mailer, which includes the City Council seal, offers a rundown of Richardson Jordan’s accomplishments so far on the lawmaking body, but it also includes a link to her political website as well as typos and spelling errors.
A City Council spokesman noted that “The Council is investigating how this occurred and will swiftly take action to address it, while enacting even greater safeguards that prevent anything similar from occurring again in the future.”
Additionally, Richard Briffault, the former chairman of the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board noted: ”It’s a violation to use city resources to promote your campaign,” and said:
“City resources should be used for city purposes — and reelection is not a city purpose.”
Black Radio
When radio began, the U.S. government (which legislated, and thus controlled the airwaves), distributed every single license in America to white owners/corporations. From this place of absolute structural inequity, Black radio has struggled to obtain and then maintain a foothold in this important and challenging media field.
This video explores the struggles faced by Black radio and shows how Black radio brings an alternative voice to the airwaves of America.
The Adams administration announced the placement of 250 new “smart” composting bins. The sealed bins will be on publicly accessible streets and opened via a smartphone app.
The city has completed a small-scale pilot of these bins that began in late 2021, proving them to be a popular and effective way to keep compostable material out of landfills. The new bins will be placed in communities in all five boroughs, with a special emphasis on areas in Manhattan above 125th Street, the South Bronx, the North Shore of Staten Island, and Central Brooklyn.
At the moment of writing this post, the NYC Sanitation site had not been updated to show Harlem locations:
but check it out to see if they’ve updated the outdated information that the Smart Compost Bins are only in Astoria and Lower Manhattan. The bin below and at the top of this item, is at the corner of East 130th and 5th Avenue:
The report found that 16 people under the age of 18 were killed in 2022 by drivers, which is double the number of kids killed by drivers in 2018 or 2020.
Last year’s total pedestrian death toll also marked a 24% increase from 2018, when 202 people were killed by drivers. That was the lowest number of deaths since Vision Zero launched with the goal of reducing traffic deaths to zero.
“As we near the 10-year mark of Vision Zero, it’s clear we haven’t moved fast enough to address this crisis,” said Danny Harris, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives.
The report noted that East Harlem and the Bronx saw the most crashes, with 6.2 crashes per 100,000 residents. Next was the City Council district covering the East Bronx, as well as the district covering Fort Greene, Crown Heights and Bedford Stuyvesant.
Advocates urged the city to recommit to goals signed into law in the 2019 Streets Plan, which requires the construction of 250 miles of protected bike and lanes and 150 miles of dedicated bus lanes over a five-year period. The Adams administration is not on pace to meet those goals.
The Greater Harlem Coalition’s Response to the Supervised Injection Site’s Partial Data For Their First Year In Harlem
New York’s Nonprofit Media has released some of OnPoint’s data for year one of operation in East Harlem and Washington Heights (November 2021 to 2022):
2,147 people have used the injection sites 48,284 times
Of those 48,284 visits, 633 used either a lethal mixture of, or a sufficient quantity of, illegal drugs to overdose
All 633 overdosing events were reversed by OnPoint staff
The Greater Harlem Coalition firmly supports compassionate intervention and the goal of saving lives. We understand those who use OnPoint’s injection site(s) require complex and thoughtful engagement and we support the overarching goals of harm reduction.
Unfortunately, however, OnPoint’s Harlem site has repeatedly failed to engage in Community Harm Reduction – a model that approaches addiction treatment holistically within a public health model. Community Harm Reduction not only serves and supports the people who use OnPoint’s services, but it also centers a goal of not harming neighboring businesses, neighbors, children, and families.
Community Harm Reduction engages and supports local businesses.
Community Harm Reduction works with local businesses to reduce loitering and theft.
Community Harm Reduction ensures that children who attend local schools do not repeatedly encounter used syringes, or have to cross the street just to avoid open-air drug sales.
Additionally, Community Harm Reduction would engage in approaches that support Harlem residents’ right to be able to get to the train, walk to the park, welcome their family, and enjoy their streets without fear of encountering drug dealers brazenly selling narcotics.
The open-air drug dealing on OnPoint’s doorstep that brings dealers and users to our community is unacceptable. We need OnPoint and New York City’s Department of Health to acknowledge that Harlem’s vibrant and diverse community should be protected, strengthened, and not simply dismissed as their program’s unavoidable collateral damage.
Click HERE to learn more about The Greater Harlem Coalition’s fight for #FairShare4Harlem
Submit Your Ideas On Harlem’s Eastern Waterfront
The city wants your guidance on developing the waterfront next to the FDR, from 96th Street to 125th Street. Please fill out this form to submit your ideas:
The nondescript apartment building on Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. between 131 and 132 Streets (shown above) was (during the Harlem Renaissance) the home of Connie’s Inn, an entertainment hot-spot and comparator with the Cotton Club. As with the Cotton Club, Connie’s Inn featured Black performers but did not allow Black audience members – restricting its audience to whites only.
The food menu is fascinating to peruse, as is the drinks menu:
Connie’s Inn was popular during the 1920s and 1930s and was founded by Connie Immerman – a successful businessman and entrepreneur (a description at the time that often not so subtly meant that he was a bootlegger and gangster).
One of the most famous performers to grace the stage at Connie’s Inn was Duke Ellington, who played there regularly throughout the 1930s. Other notable performers included Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, and Cab Calloway. The club also featured a wide range of entertainment, including jazz bands, comedians, and dance troupes.
In addition to its entertainment, Connie’s Inn was also known for the glamorous nature of its opulent Art Deco decor. Connie’s Inn had plush velvet seating, sparkling chandeliers, and intricate plasterwork.
The covers of its menu (below) however, are a world unto themselves:
Connie’s Inn eventually closed its doors in the 1940s.
New York State’s Teacher of the Year Teaches in Harlem
The 2023 New York State Teacher of the Year, as chosen by the state Board of Regents and Department of Education, Billy Green teaches chemistry and math at A. Philip Randolph High School in Upper Manhattan, making a difference in the lives of young New Yorkers after his own childhood was marked by homelessness and other significant hurdles.
