The Triumph of Leadership

It is with both honor and pleasure that we announce that on Saturday, November 15th, The Harlem Cultural Archives will be hosting its 1st Annual Legacy Award Luncheon, saluting the incomparable David Dinkins, for a lifetime of meritorious service to both the local and world communities.

The luncheon will take place at the Columbia University Faculty Club at 168th between Broadway and Fort Washington. Dominic Carter of NY1 will present the award. Tickets are modestly priced and going fast, so act now to assure that you don't miss this historic event.

Reception 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 pm

Luncheon 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Inquiries: HarlemCulturalArchives@gmail.com

Hog and Hominy:Soul Food From Africa To America

Frederick Opie's culinary history is an insightful portrait of the social and religious relationship between people of African descent and their cuisine. Beginning with the Atlantic slave trade and concluding with the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Opie composes a global history of African American foodways and the concept of soul itself, revealing soul food to be an amalgamation of West and Central African social and cultural influences as well as the adaptations blacks made to the conditions of slavery and freedom in the Americas.

Soul is the style of rural folk culture, embodying the essence of suffering, endurance, and survival. Soul food comprises dishes made from simple, inexpensive ingredients that remind black folk of their rural roots. Sampling from travel accounts, periodicals, government reports on food and diet, and interviews with more than thirty people born before 1945, Opie reconstructs an interrelated history of Moorish influence on the Iberian Peninsula, the African slave trade, slavery in the Americas, the emergence of Jim Crow, the Great migration, the Great Depression, and the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. His grassroots approach reveals the global origins of soul food, the forces that shaped its development, and the distinctive cultural collaborations that occurred among Africans, Asians, Europeans, and Americans throughout history.

Hog and Hominy traces the class- and race-inflected attitudes toward black folk's food in the African diaspora as it evolved in Brazil, the Caribbean, the American South, and such northern cities as Chicago and New York, mapping the complex cultural identity of African Americans as it developed through eating habits over hundreds of years.

Dr Opie will be doing a talk and book signing tonight October 10, at 6:00 PM at Hue Man books on 125th street. Other events on the booktour this fall include:

 

October 14, 2008           Atlanta History Center           8:00 

October 15, 2008           Auburn Ave Rs'rch Library, Atlanta 7:00

November 5, 2008        Culinary Institute of America    2:00 pm 

November 20, 2008     Seminary Co-op Bookstores "57th Street Books", Chicago                                             

The Schomburg Lives!!

Contrary to a widely circulated emailed statement , the world renowned house of black knowledge, the Schomburg Collection , is in no danger relocation. A well placed source in the office of Assemblyman Keith Wright has asserted that "the Schomburg is doing brilliantly", and that there are no plans in the works to move it.  

Hats Off to John Isaacs!

We too have Dreams!!

Hubris In Harlem

clipped from www.save-ml.org

Stellar and its partner Rockpoint are on the verge of defaulting on their $225 million mortgage for Riverton Apartments in Harlem. See articles in the Wall Street Journal, Reuters,Crain's New York and WNYC.

The likely default was predicted by the Partnership to Preserve Affordable Housing in its April 28, 2008 memo (click on "read more" below to see it), written by Thomas Waters, housing analyst for the Community Service Society. When equity funds invest substantially more than the rents will supply, the investment can only be repaid by evicting the rent-regulated tenants. Failure to do that means defaults, lack of maintenance, and disaster.

A Taste of Streetball

One of  the only  things that I enjoy more than the cacophony and cadence of New York City

Summer League Basketball is Jazz, and Jazz took a back seat on Monday.

A buzz has been building about a new  tournament called the Tri-State Classic played in Colonel Young Park on 145th and Lenox.  

Mousey, the coaching icon who is the architect of  legendary powerhouses in the EBC and Dykman tournaments has brought  the resources of Nike and the"House of Hoops" to bear in the storied park on the corner of  145th and Lenox. Historically  the site of the Holcolmb Rucker Tournament, it also recently served as the set for PeeWee Kirklands televised "School of Skillz".

The tournament which now in its second year has taken the hoop scene by storm.  I caught Diamond vs. Bingo's All stars and was not disappointed. A very competitive"Diamond" team, lead by James"Stix" Williams , and "Mookie" Thomas, were simply overmatched by RonRon"Tru Warrior" Artest of the Houston Rockets   and  "The Best Kept Secret".

The All Star game is thursday at 7:00pm. Get there early and don't leave your seat. 

Jazzmobile's 45th anniversary

There are few if any Harlem institutions that are more beloved than the Jazzmobile. The non profit Jazz advocacy and educational forum which was founded in 1963 by Rivertonian pianist extraordinaire, Dr. Billy Taylor and managed for many years by Dave Bailey;  is presently operating under the capable stewardship of Robin Bell-Stevens. Over the years, the familiar filigreed, flatbed truck(sustained by generous support from Chase Bank) has provided a stage and audience to virtually everybody who is anybody in the wide world of Jazz.
As regular as a Timex, its 8 week summer concert series,which is produced by Johnny Garry,   has become a cultural mainstay on the Harlem landscape. In addition to its concert programming, Jazzmobile also provides low cost musical instruction to the community and has been instrumental in passing the torch to generations of listeners, and musicians alike.
As we have lost the likes of Dizzy , Bags, and Blakey a new generation of standard bearers has emerged. At the vanguard of that group is the incomparable drummer Winard Harper, who fronted this slammin' sextet in 2002. He will be making several appearances this summer , and is a crowd pleaser without rival......see ya there!!

Happy Birthday "Nieuw Haarlem"

On August 14th of this year, the town of "Nieuw Haarlem" will celebrate its 350th anniversary. If you have ever visited the dense thicket on the northern end of the Manhattan island that is Inwood Park, you should have little difficulty imagining the forest that was encountered by the first Dutch colonists who made their way up the east river, settling in the area of present day 125th street .

Renaissance Montage

Where better to launch a new Harlem historical society than with the Harlem Renaissance. Courtesey of one"mjlauria" the creator of this insightful collage,we invite you to take a step into our glorious past.