Tag: YMCA
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Eartha Kitt
Austin Hansen photographed Kitt leading a dance group at the Harlem YMCA in the early 1950’s. Eartha had been a professional dancer, dancing and touring with the Katherine Dunham Company between 1943 and 1948 before she became more widely known as a singer. Note the photo below, and the vents under the windows as the…
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Vote Today!
Make sure to head to the polls today to vote for Governor and State Assembly (among others). Church > Synagogue > Shake Shack On the north-west corner of 5th and 125th Street, the lot occupied by Shake Shack and the check cashing business was, at one point the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church of Harlem. In…
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Harlem Creek
Before the building boom in the 2nd half of the 19th century, what we call Central Harlem was farmland where people raised cash crops to sell 7 miles south in New York City. It was sleepy, undeveloped and could easily pass for rural New England today: This 1870 photo is looking northwest from what’s left…
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Harlem YMCA
In the 1940s the Harlem YMCA on 135th Street was eager to produce a film that highlighted how the ‘Y’ offered job training, healthy recreation, and cultural development. With a tight budget, producing a sound film would have been costly, so the clever use of handwritten intertitles suggested a letter written home about the YMCA…
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It’s 2021: Who Has the Money?
November 2021 will be a pivotal election year for the city. City Council candidates are busily fundraising to get their names out in races currently held by Bill Perkins and Diana Ayala. Diana Ayala is the only candidate in her district to get matching funds. She’s received over $82,000 of these matching funds. In Bill…
