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Harlem

Historic Signs Will Celebrate Harlem History

February 21, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

While We Are Still Here logoFrom Ethel Waters and Althea Gibson to Marcus Garvey and Langston Hughes, Harlem’s extraordinary historic legacy was vital to the intellectual, cultural and political advancements of African Americans and the United States.

Now, with funding from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation, While We Are Still Here is planning to install twenty-five historic markers around the Harlem community, beginning in the summer of 2021, to celebrate historic places. [Read more…] about Historic Signs Will Celebrate Harlem History

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, Grants, Harlem, Historic Preservation, William Pomeroy Foundation

Harlem’s “Black Beauty” Mills; London’s Josephine Baker

December 7, 2020 by Jaap Harskamp 2 Comments

Bassanos portrait of Lord KitchenerBorn in 1799, Clemente Bassano (the family name originates from the Veneto region of Italy) settled in London and started his career as a fishmonger in Soho. By 1825 he ran a warehouse from Jermyn Street, St James’s, importing almonds, oil, capers, and macaroni.

His daughter Louise was an opera singer who toured with Franz Liszt on his London visit in 1840/1. Her brother Alessandro became a high society photographer with a studio in Regent Street. His portrait of Horatio Kitchener was used during the First World War for an iconic recruitment poster. [Read more…] about Harlem’s “Black Beauty” Mills; London’s Josephine Baker

Filed Under: Arts, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, New York City Tagged With: art, Art History, Black History, Dance, Harlem, Harlem Renaissance, Performing Arts, Theatre, Women, womens history

Marcus Garvey In Harlem: Roots of African Independence

August 31, 2020 by James S. Kaplan Leave a Comment

Universal African Legion in front of the UNIA Liberty Hall on 138th Ave in Harlem, NY during the 1924 UNIA Convention's opening day parade. Photo by James Van Der Zee.Marcus Garvey was a Jamaican-born printer who as a young man became keenly aware of the severe discrimination against Black people, particularly dark skinned people, internationally.

He later moved to London where he met several Black Nationalists seeking to end white European colonialism in Africa.

At a library in London he read Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery in which Washington, the founder of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, urged that African-Americans pull themselves up and establish black institutions, over seeking equal rights through integration. [Read more…] about Marcus Garvey In Harlem: Roots of African Independence

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, Civil Rights, Harlem, New York City, Political History

Real Estate, Philip Payton And The Rise of Black Harlem

August 4, 2020 by James S. Kaplan 1 Comment

Philip A Payton Jr circa 1914The Underground Railroad Coalition recently announced a major effort to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the New York State constitutional provision that ended slavery in the State on July 4, 1827.

The emancipation provision in the New York State Constitution of 1799 provided for the gradual elimination of slavery in New York, but it did not end the widespread legal race discrimination in the state. The most glaring example of this was the New York State Constitution of 1821, which eliminated property qualifications to vote for white men, but denied black men owning less than $250 worth of property the right to vote. [Read more…] about Real Estate, Philip Payton And The Rise of Black Harlem

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, Harlem, Jewish History, New York City, Slavery, Urban History

New Graphic Novel Features Harlem Hellfighter Henry Johnson

July 19, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

medal of honor henry johnsonA new full-color digital graphic novel by the Association of the United States Army Book Program, Medal of Honor: Henry Johnson, recognizes the remarkable acts of Henry Johnson of Albany during the First World War.

[Read more…] about New Graphic Novel Features Harlem Hellfighter Henry Johnson

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Books, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Albany, Black History, Books, Harlem, Military History, World War One

Ada ‘Bricktop’ Smith: Queen of Montmarte

May 18, 2020 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

ada smithHer hair was flaming red and so were her freckles. Born Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith on August 14, 1894 in Alderson, West Virginia, she was the youngest of four children.

“I am hundred percent American Negro with a trigger Irish temper” – as she summarized her genealogy. The “Queen Victoria” in her birth name is both puzzling and amusing, but whatever the explanation she lived her life as a royal – Queen of Montmartre. [Read more…] about Ada ‘Bricktop’ Smith: Queen of Montmarte

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: African American History, Cultural History, Harlem, Music, New York City, Performing Arts, Social History, Theatre

Educating Harlem: A Century of Schooling and Resistance

December 5, 2019 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

educating harlemOver the course of the twentieth century, education was a key site for envisioning opportunities for African Americans, but the very schools they attended sometimes acted as obstacles.

The new book Educating Harlem: A Century of Schooling and Resistance in a Black Community (Columbia University Press, 2019), edited by Ansley T. Erickson and Ernest Morrell, brings together a multidisciplinary group of scholars to provide a broad consideration of the history of schooling in one of the nation’s most iconic black communities. [Read more…] about Educating Harlem: A Century of Schooling and Resistance

Filed Under: Books, History, New York City Tagged With: African American History, Black History, Books, Harlem

Coppola’s The Cotton Club Returning to Albany

August 19, 2019 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

the cotton clubThe NYS Writers Institute is set to welcome filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola for the Albany premiere of a restored and re-edited The Cotton Club, and a conversation with Writers Institute founder William Kennedy, who co-wrote the film’s original screenplay.

The film is set around Cotton Club, a popular New York City nightclub in the 1920s and 1930s, when it was located on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue.  Coppola’s restored and re-edited film adds 30 minutes of footage not in the original release, including several high-energy musical and dance numbers, and an expansion of the black characters’ stories and performances. Coppola spent half a million dollars of his own money re-editing it.

[Read more…] about Coppola’s The Cotton Club Returning to Albany

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, Events, History Tagged With: Albany, Dance, film, Harlem, Music, NYS Writers Institute, Performing Arts

Harlem WWI Armistice 100th Anniversary Observance Set

September 25, 2018 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Dorrance Brooks Square photo courtesy Clio A 100th Anniversary Observance of the armistice ending the First World War has been set for Saturday, November 10, 2018 at 11 am at Dorrance Brooks Square Park on Edgecombe Avenue in Harlem.

The segregated 369th United States Infantry, also known as the “Harlem Hellfighters,” assigned to fight in the French Army’s 161st Division, served 191 days in front line trenches in France, more than any other American unit, and also suffered the most losses of any American regiment with approximately 1,500 casualties.  Soldiers fought on two fronts, domestically and internationally, to show both their bravery and patriotism to defend America as well as their efforts to have the respect and rights as full citizens free from racial discrimination. [Read more…] about Harlem WWI Armistice 100th Anniversary Observance Set

Filed Under: Events, History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, Harlem, Military History, New York City, World War One

Historic District Designated in Central Harlem

June 8, 2018 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

West 130-132nd Streets Historic DistrictThe New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) has recently designated the Central Harlem – West 130-132nd Streets a Historic District. This mid-block historic district represents Central Harlem’s residential architecture, and the social, cultural, and political life of its African American population in the 20th century.

To illustrate the significance of this diverse historic district, LPC launched an interactive story map called Explore the Central Harlem – West 130th-132nd Streets Historic District. [Read more…] about Historic District Designated in Central Harlem

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, Harlem, Historic Preservation, Landmarks Preservation Commission

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