Welcome to Harlem’s Newsletter

  • Harlem’s Museum of Civil Rights
    Harlem’s Museum of Civil Rights

    The National Urban League has chosen Jennifer Scott to be the founding executive director and lead curator of The Urban Civil Rights Museum being built on West 125th Street between ACP and Lenox. The new museum will center the Urban League’s Empowerment Center in Harlem and house the NUL’s headquarters along with 170 units of…

  • Horses on Harlem River Drive
    Horses on Harlem River Drive

    Two stereoscopic views looking northward on Harlem Speedway (Harlem River Drive) from around 181st Street. The bottom image captures the finale to a race (note the man lying on the rockface to the left). The top image shows just how wide the Speadway was. In both images, note the domed building on a bluff, in…

  • Harlem, The Fastest Growing Suburb
    Harlem, The Fastest Growing Suburb

    A fascinating map from 1907 shows how the cachet of Harlem (as a wealthy suburb, serving a thriving metropolis) lead distant developers to adopt the name. This map (below) of an area south of Denver was promoted as the fastest growing suburb in the region, and yet proximate to Denver’s city center. A detailed view…

  • Claire Oliver Gallery Fall Exhibit
    Claire Oliver Gallery Fall Exhibit

    Claire Oliver Gallery is currently exhibiting: When You See Them, You See Me, the debut solo exhibition by artist Robert Peterson. Featuring 13 life-scale oil on canvas figurative paintings. Peterson aims to capture time through his art, highlighting Black family life as joyous, loving, and balanced. “This exhibition is extremely personal to me as it…

  • Mark Levine Wants You!
    Mark Levine Wants You!

    Mark Levine, Manhattan’s Borough President writes: Democracy is on the line on Nov. 8th—here in New York and nationally. In this election, Democrats face a Republican party that advances the Big Lie, denies reproductive freedom, and keeps our nation awash in guns. Against this extremism, statewide Democrats in New York are only polling in the…

  • Run On The Harlem Savings Bank
    Run On The Harlem Savings Bank

    Ebay has a photo of a 1907 ‘run’ on the Harlem Savings Bank. The photo is from the Brown Brothers Photo Archive’s file titled “Bank Panics”. The 1907 bank panic was caused by public distrust of the banking system and created a frenzy of withdrawals. To avoid a serious financial crisis in the country wealthy…

  • HNBA October Meeting – Tuesday, October 11th
    HNBA October Meeting – Tuesday, October 11th

    (and yes, you’re invited!) HNBA’s October meeting will be on Zoom, tomorrow, Tuesday, October 11th, at 7:00 PM.   We’re going to have representatives from the MTA presenting on, and answering questions about the project to replace the MetroNorth viaduct from East 115th Street up to East 123rd Street – while the trains continue to roll…

  • International Marxist University
    International Marxist University

    As seen on the streets of Harlem: And much more! And, Further East, On Park Avenue

  • Party on Park CANCELLED (Due to Rain)
    Party on Park CANCELLED (Due to Rain)

    🙁 Free Holistic Services at The East 126 Safe Injection Site

  • Ballot Initiatives Coming in November’s Election
    Ballot Initiatives Coming in November’s Election

    Next month, New York City voters will have four proposals to decide on: a statewide proposal that would boost spending in Albany on future environment-related projects creating a “statement of values” for NYC’s government creating a NYC racial equity office defining how the cost of living is calculated in NYC If approved, the four ballot…

  • Harlem Newsboy and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Reports
    Harlem Newsboy and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Reports

    Ebay has this image of a newsboy from 1943 up for sale: To the left is an ad for an upcoming feature in The People’s Voice – Adam Powell Reports On His 8,000 Mile Cross Country Tour.

  • A Librarian From Puerto Rico
    A Librarian From Puerto Rico

    Chalkbeat is reporting on the Puerto Rican Librarian who broke the NYPL color barrier in 1921 to be the first Latina librarian in the country’s largest library system. Pura Belpré was born and raised in Puerto Rico. In 1920, she came to New York City for her sister’s wedding and never went back. In 1921,…