A Tale Of Two Harlem Churches

One church in Harlem is not Obama-friendly, the other is.

 

 

Will This Building Provide Affordable Housing In Harlem?

This building at the corner of Lenox Avenue and 116th Street in Harlem has been empty of tenants for years. Recently, scaffolding has been erected around it. So maybe (I hope) it will soon be turned into affordable housing, especially for longtime Harlem residents. We'll see. The one thing Harlem doesn't need is another luxury apartment building charging sky-high rents.

James Baldwin's Centennial Year

This year, in August, will mark what would have been the esteemed novelist/essayist James Baldwin's 100th birthday.

A Masked Giraffe On Manhattan's Upper West Side

This masked giraffe (not a real one, obviously) was seen outside a liquor store on Columbus Avenue in Manhattan during the COVID-19 pandemic. Was it a subtle reminder to patrons to wear a mask before entering the store?  Recently the giraffe was seen without the mask.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet's Classic "Time Out" LP

Time Out, recorded in 1959 by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, is one of my favorite jazz albums. ("Take Five," the hit jazz tune, is on the album.) I have both the long-play vinyl record and the CD. 

Brubeck in the CD's liner notes said that "[c]reating a 'hit' out of the odd-meter experiments of Time Out was the farthest from any of our minds...when [we] went into the studio to record."

I love the above photo. It appears in the reissued CD's booklet. Paul Desmond, the alto saxophone player as well as the composer of "Take Five," did his own thing by wearing a suit and tie and didn't try to copy what his bandmates wore. He was cool and confident.

Philip Payton, The Father Of Black Harlem

Philip Payton, The Father of Black Harlem is a book on my to-read list. It's a biography, by the scholar Kevin McGruder, of the African-American real estate mogul Philip Payton, who played an important role in establishing Harlem as the capital of Black America. Any study of Harlem history must include his name. As a native son of Harlem, I am interested in his story.

Community Gardens, A Solution To Urban Food Deserts?

Community garden, Harlem, 127th Street, near Lenox Avenue.

The Village Vanguard, A Jazz Mecca

The Village Vanguard, one of New York's storied jazz venues, located on Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, in the West Village. Among the musicians who've performed there are Miles Davis (trumpeter), Sonny Rollins (saxophonist), Thelonious Monk (pianist), Carmen McRae (vocalist), Bill Evans (pianist), and Gerry Mulligan (saxophonist).

More Harlem Street Art

This wall mural was painted to advertise the 2021 Aretha Franklin biopic, Respect, starring Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, and Marlon Wayans. It was located on 124th Street, near Lenox Avenue.

Street Art In Harlem

This artwork-- a spray painted computer monitor?--was seen at the corner of 125th Street and Saint Nicholas Avenue.

I Am Not A Dunkin' Donuts Fan

I worked as a proofreader at the iconic New York alternative newspaper, The Village Voice, in  1982 and 1983. Back then Monday nights were special because around 7:30 or 8 o'clock the editorial staff were treated to a different national cuisine. I remember, for the first time, eating a pierogi, a sort of Polish dumpling.

At 8:30 or so, we got in a van and headed for the printing plant in Hackensack, New Jersey, working until seven the next morning, checking the page proofs for any last-minute errors that crept in before we went to press a few hours later.

Before arriving at the plant we would stop at a Dunkin' Donuts shop to pick up a couple of boxes of donuts. There might have been coffee purchased, too. Although my memory of that is kind of hazy, it seems unimaginable to eat donuts without something to wash them down.

I say all this because I recently picked up from the Little Free Library a book called Chowdaheadz: A Wicked Smaaht Guide to All Things Boston by Ryan DeLisle and Ryan Gormady, two Bostonians, with humorous illustrations by Kevin Mulkern, another Bostonian (Globe Pequot/ Rowman & Littlefield, 2017).

In this book I learned that Dunkin' Donuts began in 1950 "as a single donut shop in Quincy, Massachusetts" that "has morphed into a Massachusetts icon." The authors further state that "[t]he endless drive-through lines at every location at any given hour prove that Boston runs on Dunkin." (The book spells Dunkin' without the apostrophe. Store signage puts it in. I chose to follow the latter.)

This might sound sacrilegious to a Bostonian, but I don't like Dunkin' Donuts. They remind me too much of those terrible donuts sold at the Winchell's donut chain stores in the Los Angeles area. My go-to donut store is Krispy Kreme, of which there are too few in New York. I like their soft, sugary, and somewhat greasy texture, especially after they are freshly made.

So if I ever get a chance to visit Boston (don't call it Beantown), I would be hunting for a Krispy Kreme shop, not a Dunkin' Donuts one. And I would make sure to carry with me a copy of Chowdaheadz* as well as a good street map.

*The authors explain what a chowdahead is. It's "someone who lives, or has lived, in Boston and maintains a wicked big sense of regional pride."

Reminder: National Donut Day is celebrated on the first Friday in June. In 2024, it will be on Friday, June 7th.

"12 Angry Men," A Film Classic

The playwright Reginald Rose's jury room drama, 12 Angry Men, began as a one-hour play performed live on network television in 1954. When it became a feature-length movie, released in 1957, it was a box office flop, despite receiving widespread critical acclaim.

Decades later, writes Phil Rosenzweig, in his book, 12 Angry Men: Reginald Rose and the Making of an American Classic (Fordham University Press, 2021), it "is revered as one of America's greatest motion pictures," written by one of television's Golden Age writers.

The stage play version, popular with both professional and amateur productions, caused one current critic to note that the play "still manages to grip an audience as though it were ripped from today's headlines." One New York Times writer, however, called attention to the "legal and social anachronisms" present in the play (and the movie) such as an all-white, all-male jury, the allowing of jurors to smoke in the jury room, and the mandatory death penalty (in New York State). There is one other anachronism, Juror #8 (Henry Fonda's character in the movie) brings a switchblade knife to the jury room that's similar to the one used as evidence in the murder trial. Today, with metal detectors present at the courthouse entrance, the knife would have been immediately confiscated by court officers.

Otherwise, I agree with the Times writer's assessment that "the play [as well as the movie] remains fresh, engaging, and powerful."

A Small African Boy's Creativity And Determination

Galimoto by Karen Lynn Williams, illustrated by Catherine Stock (HarperCollins, paperback, 1991, approx. 32 pp.,  suitable for ages 4-8).

Kondi is a small boy who lives in a village in the African country of Malawi where the national language is Chichewa.

"I shall make a galimoto," he tells his older brother, Ufulu. (Galimoto, the Chichewa word for "car," is what a small push toy is called. It can be made of wires or some other material.) Ufulu laughs and tells Kondi that he doesn't have enough wires to make his toy. That sets Kondi on a neighborhood search for wires. Along the way he encounters adults who at first don't understand what he is doing when he climbs over a fence or innocently cuts in front of  a long line of housewives patiently waiting to have their maize ground by the miller at the flour mill.

Undeterred, Kondi continues his search for more wires. When he achieves his goal, Kondi makes a toy car that he pushes with a long bamboo stick to the delight of the other children in the village. After succeeding in making his galimoto, he dreams that night of what he will make next. Perhaps "an ambulance or an airplane or a helicopter."

Galimoto is a riveting story that is told in simple language and is beautifully illustrated with watercolor drawings. The book is meant to be read aloud and is sure to please children in the four to eight age range.

The story took me back to my own childhood when I would make a bus or a train out of an empty quart size milk container or cardboard boxes. I had plenty of store-bought toys but I also enjoyed making things by hand.

Galimoto is a great way for parents to encourage small children to let their imaginations have free rein by using everyday items to create their own toys and not depend solely on those that are ready-made.

At a time when kids have their eyes glued to mobile devices, this book introduces them to the printed page, shows them the simple pleasure of creating something with their own hands, and allows them to see how a child in a far-away land uses his leisure time.