A Library In The Park

I encourage people to visit Mount Morris Park (aka Marcus Garvey Park) in Harlem. You will find two little green and yellow boxes in the shape of a house with a slanted roof mounted on a green wooden platform supported by a green wooden pillar These boxes are part of the Little Free Library project. One box is marked "Young Adult Books," the other is marked "Children's Books." On the roof of each "house" is the slogan "Take A Book, Return A Book."

The Little Free Library boxes are located near the Children's playground which faces 124th Street (near 5th Avenue) and is across the street from the New York Public Library's Harlem Branch library. (The playground equipment has the same green and yellow color scheme as the book boxes.)

  I recently found inside one of the boxes a hardback copy of Having Our Say by Sarah and Elizabeth Delany, two African-American sisters who each lived well past their 100th birthdays. The book was published in 1993. (They were the aunts of the famed science fiction writer Samuel R. Delany.)

Surprisingly, the boxes have not been vandalized or spray painted with graffiti. Maybe there is some respect for literature.

Harlem Pride

Mark your calendars! Harlem Pride will be celebrating gay liberation June 12-26, in the Mount Morris Park Historic District, on 119th Street, in the center of a thriving "gayborhood." "This historic event," says the press release,"for the first time brings to Harlem, in one location, several LGBT institutions that have been fundamental in fostering tolerance as well as a diverse future." Organizations such as the Audre Lorde Project, SAGE,the Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation, and the Human Rights Campaign will be participating on Harlem Pride Day (June 26), a block-long party, that wraps up the event, a day before the annual Gay Pride Parade downtown. So get ready to party hardy and proudly wear the rainbow colors. For more info, go to www.casafrela.com.