EGN Youth Sports & Development is a non-profit organization missioned to improve youth and their communities through the art of Karate. Our goal is to strengthen the minds, bodies and hearts of the youth in our communities through Karate training.
(Note that the transcription incorrectly misidentifies the Harlem Precinct. It should be the 28th Precinct, not the 20th.
We are a firm believer that physical training leads to increased spiritual connection and strength through patience, which in turn leads to better decision- making from our children. We aim to deepen relationships between children of diverse backgrounds to create community-minded and open–minded individuals who value friendships, and authentic relationships with themselves and the communities they exist in.
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 Hendrix’s home on the east coast before being whisked off to London by a British promoter who saw Jimi Hendrix as having incredible megastar potential.
This homecoming couldn’t have been more different from what he expected. Residents had given up, and considered the show nearly over and his international star power was not holding the community in thrall.
After taking to the stage, a crowd member threw a bottle at Hendrix, which shattered against one of the speakers. Added to this, barrages of eggs covered the stage, a testament to just how the local community felt they had been let down by Hendrix. Nevertheless, Hendrix and his band played while the angry crowd gradually dispersed.
“They didn’t like him,” Charles R. Cross says in his Hendrix biography Room Full of Mirrors. “He was jeered. People heckled him.”
This was deeply ironic, of course, as race had deeply frustrated Hendrix and he hated that he was caught between being reduced to a stereotype by many white fans while being rejected by many in the Black community.
The YouTube link (below) while not a video recording, gives a sense of just how much the performance might have come off as artful noise to those who remained on Lenox and 139th Street that evening.
Join MMPCIA for a conversation with the commander of the 28th Precinct (the southern half of central Harlem) to learn more about what the NYPD intends to do to address the increase in crime in our community.
General Membership Meeting: Tuesday, February 15th, 6:30PM ZOOM LINK Meeting ID: 868 4723 49171 646 558 8656 (New York) ZOOM: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86847234917Meeting ID: 868 4723 4917
Join MMPCIA in a discussion with our 28th Precinct Commander Deputy Inspector Andre Brown
Scenes from the Upper Manhattan Asian American Association’s Celebration of the Lunar New Year
Marcus Meets Malcolm and the Upper Manhattan Asian American Association celebrated the lunar new year on West 120th Street yesterday.
There was an upper Manhattan dance troupe, martial arts demonstrations, food, games, and more.
Large crowds, perfect weather, and the shared goal of a vibrant, tolerant, multicultural, and thriving Harlem was in abundant evidence.
Harlem would get two new connectors that would allow families, joggers, and cyclists to ride around Manhattan, traffic free.
This is a huge project that involves years of engineering and environmental impact analysis, but it really could be a game-changer for enaging with the waterfront in a car-free environment.
On August 13th, youth interns (ages 14-24) enrolled in the Outdoor Play Cohort at Concrete Safaris’ Outdoor Leadership Academy will host JungleGym 2021 Summer Series, a NYC Open Streets event, celebrating its 14th birthday party and 9th annual obstacle race and active living fair on East 106th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues. A 20-obstacle race and active living fair for children (ages 5+) and their families will run from 1:00 to 5:00pm.
The Youth Host Photo Expo & Streetscape Garden Tour will take place on Friday, August 13th from 10:00am to 1:00pm on Second Avenue between 112th and 115th Streets.
In addition, Youth Host Virtual Photo Expo will take place on the same day from 2:00 to 5:00pm.
This event will bring youth interns (ages 14-24) enrolled in the Gardening & Health Media Cohorts at Concrete Safaris’ Outdoor Leadership Academy to host an Outdoor Photo Expo and Streetscape Garden Tour at Jefferson Gardens at Jefferson Houses, 300 East 115th Street in East Harlem. In addition, an online Photo Expo at concrete safaris.org will take place from 2:00 to 5:00pm.
28th Precinct’s Build the Block – Friday
A Great Day in Harlem on Thursday!
The Celebration of this historic street co-naming event will take place on Thursday, August 12th from 2:00 to 4:00pm. The entrance for guests will be at East 126th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues. Click here to Register. This is a free event.
“Uptown is proud to honor the deep-rooted history of jazz here in Harlem, along with the visionary man who conceived and took this iconic photo more than 60 years ago,” shared Diane Collier, Chair of Uptown Grand Central. “Along with the Harlem/East Harlem residents, we are pleased to memorialize this wonderful event with a street sign on the block where it all happened.”
Harlem Week is On
Find out more about fantastic Harlem Week events here:
The NYPD and the 28th Precinct is inviting you to their 1st HBCU College Fair that will take place on June 5th, 2021 from 1200-1600 hrs. It will take place in the rear of the 28th precinct 2271 8th Avenue (St. Nicholas btw W 122st & W 123rd St). Please share with any youth you know that may be interested in attending college. Also, if you can post on your social media accounts that would be awesome. Hope to see you there! Thank you.
The Community Affairs Bureau offers a variety of information including personal safety tips and local events. Sign up today, by visiting www.nypdcommunityaffairs.comfor more information.” or by texting NYPD to 22828
Uptown Grand Central, our amazing business alliance group, has done a fantastic job to beautify tree pits that it protected with metal guards a few years ago.
And yes, you can help beautify your community too (this weekend)!
Green and Blue Eco Care Hey everyone! How have you been?? I hope this email finds you well. Are you following us on Instagram and Facebook yet? Have you seen all the incredible events we already had this year? Feeling so grateful and humbled here. It’s amazing what we can do together! Check pictures of our events on our social media! We already collected hundreds of pounds of litter from our streets in East Harlem, bringing awareness about this major problem in our community and planet! This year we have also been planting sunflower seeds and other wildflowers on the street tree beds, for the benefit of our urban ecosystem and to beautify and uplift our community. Who can be sad or mad staring at a sunflower? The weather has been unpredictable and birds are having to adapt fast, but we hope our flowers can sustain pollinators’ lives and feed the birds too. Here’s where we planted so far:
We are very excited to team up with Friends of the East River Esplanade (60th-120th st) to create pollinators gardens on our riverfront near 96th St. Join us this Saturday and don’t miss the fun. Feel free to invite your contacts. Volunteers must be 18+ for this specific event. Please RSVP.
And this Sunday, Growing Green is hosting their first event in Harlem and we’ll be there to support them! Let’s see what many artists and dedicated volunteers can create together? Let me know if you are joining the fun. 11am in front of the Apollo Theatre.
We’ll keep you posted about the events on May 22nd at the Thomas Jefferson Park and Sunshine Playground. Save the date! Cheers!
Deputy Inspector Brown, the commanding officer of the 28th Precinct, had come across this image of the old 28th Precinct building and wanted to share:
This beautiful building on West 123rd, between FDB and ACP was replaced by the brutalist fortress between Frederick Douglass Avenue and St. Nicholas Avenue:
Patch’s Nick Garber reported on Thursday that All Saints Church has been sold to a developer of low-income housing for $11.35 million.
The historic church has remained empty for 6 years, costing the diocese millions just to maintain the abandoned and landmarked structure.
The Co Living model, favored by the developer is based on an SRO or college dormitory model, with residents sharing a kitchen and/or bathroom. As an international developer (in the US and Mexico) the company – CSC Coliving – has developed a number of properties in the SRO/dorm model.
CSC Coliving notes the following as typical for their buildings:
And they tout that their model of Coliving is more profitable by having more people per square foot:
The story of Malcolm X is, of course, profoundly intertwined with that of Harlem.
As a leading figure in Harlem’s radical scene it may seem incongruous that he was appointed to the 28th Precinct’s Community Council to serve as a community liaison. The chairman of the 28th Precinct’s Community Council was James Hicks
the influential editor of the New York Amsterdam News. Hicks was impressed by Malcolm X’s masterful ability to control the crowds during a protest against police brutality in the spring of 1957.
Perhaps no single event catapulted Malcolm X into the public eye more than the police beating of Johnson X Hinton. Malcolm had quickly risen through the ranks of the NOI since his release from prison, becoming a permanent fixture in Philadelphia before being appointed the head minister of Harlem’s Mosque 7 in 1955. However, both the minister and the Nation of Islam maintained a low public profile and were regarded by most as little more than a fringe religious cult. This changed on April 26, 1957, when police intervened in a scuffle between a man and woman at 125th Street and Lenox Avenue. Hinton and several local mosque members came across the police beating the man. When Hinton and his companions were ordered to leave the scene, they refused and responded: “You’re not in Alabama − this is New York.” Hinton was then placed under arrest and subsequently beaten by patrolman Mike Dolan with his nightstick, receiving what was later described as “multiple lacerations of the scalp” and a “subdural hemorrhage.”
Malcolm X was quickly notified and marched with mosque members to the nearby 28th Precinct. Within a few telephone calls and in less than half an hour, fifty members of the Nation’s paramilitary group, the Fruit of Islam, stood in formation outside the precinct. There, Malcolm demanded that Hinton be admitted for treatment at Harlem Hospital while the crowd outside swelled to nearly two thousand. More impressive than the size of the silently protesting crowd was the orderliness and simplicity by which it was dispersed. Assured that Hinton had received the proper care, Malcolm approached the crowd, raised his arm, and gave a signal. One bystander described it as “eerie, because these people just faded into the night. It was the most orderly movement of four thousand to five thousand people I’ve ever seen in my life − they just simply disappeared − right before our eyes.” Malcolm’s silent command also left a strong impression on the New York Police. The chief inspector at the scene turned to AmsterdamNews reporter James Hicks and said: “This is too much power for one man to have.”
The event garnered media attention for both the Nation of Islam and for Malcolm individually, earning him the reputation as the one man who “could stop a race riot − or start one.” Of course, it was not merely the Harlem public, but the NYPD which took an active notice. The chief inspector quickly released a series of urgent inquiries to police departments and government agencies in Michigan and Massachusetts requesting Malcolm’s criminal background. Malcolm also became a primary concern for the department’s newly formed surveillance unit, the Bureau of Special Services and Investigation (BOSS). The Nation of Islam eventually filed three lawsuits, the largest of them for a million-dollars. The sum of $70,000 eventually granted Hinton the largest damage award the city had ever paid in a police brutality case and was granted by an all-white jury. Ultimately the legacy of the Johnson X Hinton case was not merely Malcolm X’s explosion onto the local and national scene, but the strong precedent set against police brutality through litigation and public protest.
Below you can see the old 28th Precinct station house on April 3rd, 1918:
Today the brutalist bunker (complete with a modernist moat, defensive wall, and projecting parapets) is anything but, architecturally welcoming.
For Spike Lee’s interpretation of this event see:
2021 Restaurant Week
NYC Restaurant Week® 2021 Is Back With Delivery – Order To Go!
Last month Chase Bank attended our HNBA meeting and Kevin Cruikshank went over a whole range of housing options and what a bank will look at if you apply for a mortgage on any one of these properties.
Classic Mistakes People Make When Purchasing a New Home
Harlem World has a good, quick article on 8 checkboxes anyone on the market for a home should consider
“Remember there are always other fish in the sea, or should we say homes in the neighborhood. The perfect place will come along eventually, it’s just going to take some time! Don’t give up, stay strong, and remember there will be a happy ending!”
Does Your Water Taste… Different?
Have you noticed that your water tastes different recently (say in the last week or so)? If you have, you’re not alone. We contacted the DEP to see what’s up using this form:
Which is the web version of calling 311 for those of you who’d prefer to not talk to an operator.
We got a call back this morning that said that about a week ago, the DEP switched NYCs drinking water from Delaware and Catskills watersheds, to Croton water. This switch will be in effect for approximately a month.
The DEP has (of course) tested the water and it’s all good, it just comes from different sources, and thus has a slightly different taste.
You can, if you want to spin this in a positive way, think of this as the historic taste of NYC water. When the Croton Aqueduct system finally brought water to NYC in the 19th century, this is what New Yorkers would have (more or less) tasted in 1842.
Since then, Delaware and Catskills water has become more dominant in our taps, and that water/taste has usurped the original Croton water/taste.
Cheers.
Federal Drug and Weapons Arrests
This just came in from the commanding officer of Harlem’s 28th Precinct:
Subject: Narcotic operation arrests in the 28th precinct
Greetings Harlem residents and Stakeholders, On 12/2/20 an on-going investigation culminated with (14) Federal indictments for drug dealing and associated violence and weapons possession. The area in and around W.122nd St – W.124th St. Lenox to Adam Clayton Powell Avenues will receive some relief from the drug trade that was operating in that area. The concerns that were conveyed to the NYPD were not made in vane and these indictments and associated arrests are a testament to the work and commitment invested in effectively addressing and resolving the issue.
Often targeting the “low hanging fruit” only provides for instant, temporary relief for a few days before these individuals return and the condition continues. This operation targeted subjects on all levels of this drug dealing hierarchy, and thus will have a definite impact on its operational abilities. The prosecution of these cases will rest with the Federal Court system.
The enforcement and maintenance of this location will continue so that the benefits of this operation are long lasting.
