Spirit of Harlem: A Portrait of America's Most Exciting Neighborhood - Hardcover

Craig Marberry; Michael Cunningham

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385504063 ISBN 13: 9780385504065

Publisher: Doubleday, 2003

Synopsis

The creative team behind the smash hit Crowns:Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats returns with a glorious tour of the spirit of Harlem—a collection of fifty stunning black-and-white photographs and unforgettable interviews that capture the heart and soul of one of the most famous and vibrant neighborhoods in the world.
Harlem, long known as the epicenter of black cultural life in America, is undergoing a radical change. An unprecedented infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars in development capital is revitalizing the community and transforming a cityscape marred by decades of poverty. In a striking show of exuberance, upscale shops are materializing in once-abandoned buildings, new homes are popping up in vacant lots, and sheets of glass twinkle in place of grim, boarded-up windows. The economic renewal has lured a host of new people to the neighborhood—doctors, lawyers, investment bankers, and even a former president. But it has also posed a threat to many residents who have lived through the worst of times and now fear that they will lose their homes and livelihoods as boom times sweep in.
Spirit of Harlem documents this extraordinary period of transition through the words and faces of newcomers and longtime residents alike. There are reminiscences of Harlem during the 1920s through the 1960s, stories of friends and families gathering at churches, in local shops, and on the streets, and thoughts on what the future holds for the neighborhood.
Millions of tourists visit Harlem each year, and many people in the United States can trace their roots to this legendary area or have read about its remarkable history and impact on American life and culture. In more than fifty stunning portraits and essays, Spirit of Harlem brings all its splendor, rancor, drama, and glamour vividly to life.

The voices of Spirit of Harlem:

“The minute you step out your door, everything in Harlem is in your face. There is a beauty and a poetry in all that . . .” —Lana Turner, real estate broker


“Bubba and me thought Harlem was Heaven, all the lights and the sights. I asked my aunt, ‘Where do all the white people live?’” —Rev. Betty Neal

“When I came up from the subway, I said, ‘Oh man, I'm lost!’ But then I saw the Apollo and it blew me away. I said, ‘Wow, this is it! I’m in Harlem!’ I had never been to Harlem before, but I just knew I belonged here.” —Bryan Collier, author and artist

About this title

About the Author

CRAIG MARBERRY conducted the interviews and wrote the essays that appear in Spirit of Harlem. A former television reporter who has written articles for the Washington Post, Essence, and the Harlem-based newspaper the Amsterdam News, he is the owner of Info Video, an award-winning video production company. MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM is the photographer of Spirit of Harlem. He is the owner of Michael Cunningham Photography, whose clients include Coca-Cola USA and the Sara Lee Corporation, and his photographs have been featured in the New York Times, Ebony, and other national publications.

From the Back Cover

“The minute you step out your door, everything in Harlem is in your face. There’s a beauty and a poetry in all that . . .You can’t feel Harlem if you’re driving by. But if you walk, you’ll see all kinds of thing.”
—Lana Turner


“ ‘A spa in Harlem? You really want to open a spa in Harlem?’ That’s what everybody asked my husband and me. A lot of people flat out said, ‘It ain’t gonna work.’ ”
—Dr. Cynthia Grace


“In February of 2000, I was on a beach in Mexico with my daughter, Lise. I said, ‘You know what, Lise? I’m moving to Harlem.’ She said, ‘You’re what?’ I said, ‘I’m moving to Harlem.’ She said, ‘Can we finish our vacation first?’ ”
—Clara Villarosa

From the Inside Flap

The creative team behind the smash hit Crowns:Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats returns with a glorious tour of the spirit of Harlem?a collection of fifty stunning black-and-white photographs and unforgettable interviews that capture the heart and soul of one of the most famous and vibrant neighborhoods in the world.
Harlem, long known as the epicenter of black cultural life in America, is undergoing a radical change. An unprecedented infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars in development capital is revitalizing the community and transforming a cityscape marred by decades of poverty. In a striking show of exuberance, upscale shops are materializing in once-abandoned buildings, new homes are popping up in vacant lots, and sheets of glass twinkle in place of grim, boarded-up windows. The economic renewal has lured a host of new people to the neighborhood?doctors, lawyers, investment bankers, and even a former president. But it has also posed a threat to many residents who have lived through the worst of times and now fear that they will lose their homes and livelihoods as boom times sweep in.
Spirit of Harlem documents this extraordinary period of transition through the words and faces of newcomers and longtime residents alike. There are reminiscences of Harlem during the 1920s through the 1960s, stories of friends and families gathering at churches, in local shops, and on the streets, and thoughts on what the future holds for the neighborhood.
Millions of tourists visit Harlem each year, and many people in the United States can trace their roots to this legendary area or have read about its remarkable history and impact on American life and culture. In more than fifty stunning portraits and essays, Spirit of Harlem brings all its splendor, rancor, drama, and glamour vividly to life.

The voices of Spirit of Harlem:

?The minute you step out your door, everything in Harlem is in your face. There is a beauty and a poetry in all that . . .? ?Lana Turner, real estate broker


?Bubba and me thought Harlem was Heaven, all the lights and the sights. I asked my aunt, ?Where do all the white people live??? ?Rev. Betty Neal

?When I came up from the subway, I said, ?Oh man, I'm lost!? But then I saw the Apollo and it blew me away. I said, ?Wow, this is it! I?m in Harlem!? I had never been to Harlem before, but I just knew I belonged here.? ?Bryan Collier, author and artist

Reviews

The duo responsible for Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats pay homage to a grand and quickly changing neighborhood. Local teachers, doctors, lawyers and journalists tell their own stories, as do artists, musicians, hatmakers, dry cleaners, literary agents, fencers, barbers, chess players and street vendors, illustrated by 52 on-site portraits. While the photos are largely conventional, many of the personal histories deserve their own books. Brett Cook-Dizney, a graffiti artist, briefly explains the "apprenticeship structure" of graffiti, "where someone usually shows you technique and style and then you fill in their lines for a while." Sy Oumoukoulshome, a hair braider, relates the honored place that braiders hold in her home country. "It's a tradition that some families in Senegal specialize in doing braids. They call them griots. It goes from generation to generation.... In Senegal, hair braiders have respect from people. But not in Harlem." The sequencing of stories and portraits is thoughtfully done. In one sequence, Kevin Taylor, the producer of Black Entertainment Television, precedes Robert Garland, a choreographer at Dance Theatre of Harlem, followed by Noah Stewart, who broke tradition by singing a spiritual at his Juilliard audition. He is in turn followed by Alice McClarty, a singer for the Sounds of Glory Choir, who herself precedes saxophonist Lonnie Youngblood.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Marberry visited Harlem as a young boy and became fascinated with the legendary neighborhood, a community that figures prominently in African American history and culture as the site of the renaissance that marked the growing awakening and definition of the African diaspora in the U.S. He teamed with photographer Cunningham to interview Harlem residents to get a view of the history of the neighborhood and of its present, filled with anxiety about urban decay and gentrification, and what changes may be on the horizon for this most famous of black American communities. Their subjects are a cross section of Harlemites who capture the vibrancy and diversity of the neighborhood: a 51-year-old real estate broker, a 45-year-old historian, ministers and activists, artists, store owners, teachers, a Japanese gospel singer, an Olympic fencer, a choreographer, and a few newcomers, part of the gentrification trends. More prominent residents include Calvin O. Butts, pastor of the famous Abyssinian Baptist Church, and Isabel Powell, Adam Clayton Powell's first wife. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Lana Turner, 51 REAL ESTATE BROKER

In Harlem, everything is in your face. It's a man blowing a trumpet on a subway platform or a stranger asking for a dollar. It's half a dozen African women sitting on chairs along the sidewalk, asking to braid your hair. It's a kid with his shirt open and his pants falling down, moving to the music in his head. It's walking past a group of men and one of them says, "Baby, you sho' look good today." The minute you step out your door, everything in Harlem is in your face. There's a beauty and a poetry in all of that.

Some people say, "Oh, the crowded streets and the noise! How can you take it?" To me, the idea of living anywhere else is so foreign because there's so much going on here that's beautiful, that's thought provoking, that's humorous. Despite all the things we have to plow through, blacks in Harlem still have a sense of humor.

There used to be a handwritten sign on a building on Lenox Avenue, across the street from Sylvia's Restaurant. It said: "This is the future home of the Crossroads Baptist Church, whenever we can raise the money." I loved that sign. It was hilarious, and yet it said something about faith.

I think it's important to walk the streets of Harlem. You can't feel Harlem if you're driving by. But if you walk, you'll see all kinds of things. There's an artist by the name of David Hammons. Back when there was an empty lot filled with tall weeds next to the Studio Museum, David Hammons collected dozens and dozens of wine bottles, the cheap ones made from green glass. He took those bottles and turned them upside down and stuck them on top of the weeds. One day I was walking past the museum, not paying any attention, and was dumbfounded when I saw what he did. It was like a field of glass flowers. That to me is extraordinary. It's extraordinary because there's humor in it and there's truth in it. It said something about the larger society seeing Harlem as a throw-away society, and how Harlem, nevertheless, can see the beauty in itself, can find art in weeds and empty bottles. There's beauty in the discarded. I'll never forget that.

I don't mean to idealize Harlem. There are some things that certainly need to change. No one would say they want crime or dirty streets, and everybody wants a better education for their children. But there are many things here that are so wonderful.

There's a woman I've seen who wears a tiara every day, and some sort of fairy-tale dress. It would be easy to write her off, but there's a certain courage rooted in her attire. This is a woman who sees herself as royalty. Her statement is to herself, and she's true to it every day. Some people fashion a way to be uniquely themselves outside of what everyone else thinks. They are the mavericks who influence the music we hear, the books we read, the art we appreciate.

Yes, Harlem has its own mythic proportions attached to it, but it's not unlike other black communities throughout the United States. There's humor, there's courage, there's art. Everyone worries about, "Oh, Harlem is becoming this or that!" I don't worry. What really makes Harlem Harlem, is the soul of the place. And despite all the change coming, I don't think you can obliterate that.

If you look back to to the early 1900s, when African Americans first came to Harlem in sizable numbers, there were headlines in the papers that were written in terms of a war being waged: "The Negroes Are a Menace" or, "Negroes Take Yet Another Building on 139th Street."

MICHAEL HENRY ADAMS Michael Henry Adams, 45 HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR

Once, I was conducting a tour of Harlem for the Lesbian-Gay Community Center. We were standing on Seventh Avenue and I was talking about the building across the street, and how Josephine Baker had lived there with a group of women when she was a chorus girl in Eubie Blake's musical Shuffle Along. As I was speaking, whizzing out of an upper window in the building behind us came a soda bottle. It hit a man in the head. The bottle broke and blood streamed down the man's face. Someone took him to Harlem Hospital, and four people on the tour decided they were leaving. Another man said, "Let's just cut our losses and go to lunch." I said, "No. Harlem is my home. I can't just surrender the streets to hoodlums." A woman in the group agreed, "Yeah, that's right! Let's get reinforcements and go through the building and find the person who threw the bottle." I said, "Well, I don't know about all of that." Anyhow, we continued the tour.

This whole notion of who belongs in Harlem, and who doesn't, is momentous. Black people here are really embittered by the prospect of displacement. You can ride on the subway and hear young men discussing what they see as white people coming and taking over Harlem. I've heard people complain about the national chains getting tax incentives to come here: the Gap, the Disney Store, Starbucks--heaven knows Manhattan doesn't need another Starbucks. And when I take tour groups around, which are often all white or predominantly white, invariably there will be a gesture of resentment toward the group. Some residents, rather than walking around the group, will very loudly and curtly say, "Excuse me!" Then they'll march through the middle of the group, the inference being, "This is my sidewalk. How dare you inconvenience me!"

That happens all the time. I was giving a tour last year and someone walked by and started shouting, "You people should go back where you came from. Harlem is not for sale! Harlem is not for sale!" The tragedy is that everything is always for sale. And the tragedy as far as African Americans are concerned is that we own so little of anything anywhere, including here in Harlem. A lot of people say this is our fault because we didn't buy buildings when we had the opportunity. There's something to be said for that. But as a historian, it occurs to me that this has happened before.

If you look back to the early 1900s, when African Americans first came to Harlem in sizable numbers, there were headlines in the papers that were written in terms of a war being waged: "The Negroes Are a Menace," or, "Negroes Take Yet Another Building on 139th Street." You'd think that was motivated out of pure racism, but now, as I experience the discomfiture of seeing the complexion of Harlem change, I realize that part of what those people were feeling was a sense of loss, a sense that a place they thought of as uniquely their own, a place connected to their culture and heritage, was turning into something else, was becoming someone else's.

During a recent television interview on CBS's "Sunday Morning," I said, "More and more, as I walk around Harlem, I see people who don't look like me, but who obviously live here." This was a joke to some of my white friends. They said, "What do you mean they don't look like you? They don't wear a straw hat?" But it's a concern to me because I wonder, in the wake of this change, if the African-American cultural capital can endure.

Bubba and me thought Harlem was heaven, all the tall buildings and the lights and the sights. One thing that stood out to me was seeing so many black people. I asked my aunt, "Where do the white folks live?"

REV. BETTY NEAL Rev. Betty Neal, 70 MINISTER AND ACTIVIST

I was twelve years old when they had that big riot in Harlem in 1943. I was in New York for the first time, on vacation, me and my brother, Alexander. We called him Bubba. Bubba was a year younger than me. My folks had sent us to visit with our aunt. We lived in Sumter, South Carolina, the Gamecock City, home of Revolutionary War general Thomas Sumter. There were no other houses out where we lived. We were way out in the woods. There was no running water, no electricity. We had a pump and kerosene lamps.

Me and Bubba were so happy about going to Harlem. Daddy took us to the bus depot. He went up to some black folk and asked who was going to New York. Somebody spoke up and Daddy asked them to watch over us. People were different in those days. You could trust strangers with your children, traveling eight hundred miles. Daddy told us to be good.

All the white people got on the bus first. When they got seated, all the black people got on and sat in the back. That's how it was.

In those days, buses didn't have toilets so they had to stop frequently. When we got off, we'd have to go on the colored folks' side of the depot to get a sandwich or anything. At one place we stopped, everybody got off except me and Bubba. We decided to sit on the front seat and open up the lunch mama made for us. Two white women had been sitting on that seat. When the driver got back on he said, "Now y'all chillins gotta go to the back of the bus. We ain't in New Yawk yet."

Aunt Roxanna met us at the bus station. Bubba and me thought Harlem was heaven, all the tall buildings and the lights and the sights. One thing that stood out to me was seeing so many black people. I asked my aunt, "Where do the white folks live?" She just laughed.

Aunt Roxanna lived at 239 West 116th Street. Right on the first floor. Beautiful apartment she had. She flicked a switch and a light came on. It was like a miracle. Aunt Roxanna had running water, a real bathtub. At home, we bathed in a big washtub. You had to heat the water in the fireplace or on the stove, if Mama was cooking. In the winter, the tub was in your bedroom. In the summer, it was on the back porch and you'd use cold water. At Aunt Roxanna's, I took a bath two or three times a day.

One night, the radio said there was a riot going on in Harlem. They were telling everybody to get off the street. A cop had beat up a black soldier, or shot a black soldier, and all hell broke loose. Four or five people got killed. My aunt said, "Oh, my Lord! Where's Bubba?" She ran from door to door and street to street but we couldn't find him. Sh...

Edition details

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385504063
• ISBN 13: 9780385504065
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 232