Lessons from Harlem(theamericanscholar.org)
theamericanscholar.org
Lessons from Harlem
https://theamericanscholar.org/lessons-from-harlem/
5 comments
The article says he "lived only two blocks away [from 125 St] in Morningside Heights, across the street from Riverside Church", so the author is looking at Harlem from roughly 120 St and Broadway.
From that POV, the boundaries of his presumed-safe neighborhood would be Morningside Park and 125 St.
From that POV, the boundaries of his presumed-safe neighborhood would be Morningside Park and 125 St.
Having lived within a block or so of the place being described, 125th is a pretty accurate placement of the Harlem's southern border west of Broadway. (Maybe a bit more south at St Clair place.) Further east is different. I can't speak to the situation in the 80s.
I thought about that, but even from the West Side looking East you wouldn't refer to 125th street as the "boundary." I think this is more likely just sloppy editing.
Source: I grew up 15 minutes from there, and lived in South Harlem for years.
Source: I grew up 15 minutes from there, and lived in South Harlem for years.
Depending on who you ask, Harlem extends as far south as East 96th St.
Yep, that’s the “traditional” line on the East Side. On the West Side, Harlem begins on 110th and Central Park West (or Manhattan Ave, depending on whether one believes that Morningside Heights includes the low part too).
Thanks for posting this. While craziness may reign in various places, parts of the world go on healing itself, one human effort at a time, and faster when more than one do so together...
There's also the Netflix documentary Satan and Adam which follows their trajectory: https://www.netflix.com/title/81077539
More universal link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7445772/
Amazingly heartfelt and well written. Feels like a portal into a different world.
I’m glad the author kept a journal and went to the trouble of writing this up. Makes you wonder what amazing things pass, becoming part of history, unremarked upon.
I’m glad the author kept a journal and went to the trouble of writing this up. Makes you wonder what amazing things pass, becoming part of history, unremarked upon.
There's a long sordid history of white musicians aping on black authenticity for karma points, and this seems to fit right in. On moving to New York, I found it hilarious all the euphemisms people use to avoid the word "Harlem"; it's "uptown" or "upper manhattan" or "central park north". Anything but that dreaded word. No no, nothing good could ever come from there. But package it up with a nice clean smile and a heartfelt college essay anecdote, and you'll get your face on the cover of the Village Voice.
this was written by an academic who spent his career studying and writing about those sort of dynamics in american music
It's nostalgia for the days when Being A Musician was a big deal.
With my obnoxious local hat on: Harlem starts at 110th street and runs to roughly 155th street, narrowing on the West Side with each of the long parks (Morningside, St. Nicholas, Jackie Robinson).
125th street would be the "heart" of Harlem, not the boundary. This would have been even more obvious in the 1980s, when the racial divisions between Bloomingdale, Morningside Heights, Harlem, and Spanish Harlem were even more stark.