Beloved Harlem


Book Description

A passionate ode to an American mecca, Beloved Harlem is a literary look into the vibrant African-American haven, edited by one of its celebrated native sons. William H. Banks, Jr., combines the classics with the contemporary as he showcases some of the best essays, short stories, and novel excerpts inspired by the diversity of Harlem life, from the early twentieth century to the new millennium. The days and nights of black Manhattan come alive in the words of historically famous writers like W.E.B. Dubois, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Dorothy West, Ossie Davis, and Toni Morrison, along with the works of brilliant newcomers to the neighborhood, including Brian Keith Jackson’s witty examination of identity politics in The Queen of Harlem and Rosemarie Robatham’s “Dreaming in Harlem,” a moving tale about a woman at the edge of society who finds sanctuary with a stranger. From renaissance through tough times to revitalization, this triumphant homage gives Harlem the historical perspective it so rightly deserves. Beloved Harlem is a welcome addition to the libraries of readers who are either already in love with Harlem or ready to take the fall.




Beloved Harlem


Book Description

A passionate ode to an American mecca, Beloved Harlem is a literary look into the vibrant African-American haven, edited by one of its celebrated native sons. William H. Banks, Jr., combines the classics with the contemporary as he showcases some of the best essays, short stories, and novel excerpts inspired by the diversity of Harlem life, from the early twentieth century to the new millennium. The days and nights of black Manhattan come alive in the words of historically famous writers like W.E.B. Dubois, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Dorothy West, Ossie Davis, and Toni Morrison, along with the works of brilliant newcomers to the neighborhood, including Brian Keith Jackson’s witty examination of identity politics in The Queen of Harlem and Rosemarie Robatham’s “Dreaming in Harlem,” a moving tale about a woman at the edge of society who finds sanctuary with a stranger. From renaissance through tough times to revitalization, this triumphant homage gives Harlem the historical perspective it so rightly deserves. Beloved Harlem is a welcome addition to the libraries of readers who are either already in love with Harlem or ready to take the fall.




Beloved


Book Description

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Toni Morrison’s Beloved is a spellbinding and dazzlingly innovative portrait of a woman haunted by the past. Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has borne the unthinkable and not gone mad, yet she is still held captive by memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. Meanwhile Sethe’s house has long been troubled by the angry, destructive ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Sethe works at beating back the past, but it makes itself heard and felt incessantly in her memory and in the lives of those around her. When a mysterious teenage girl arrives, calling herself Beloved, Sethe’s terrible secret explodes into the present. Combining the visionary power of legend with the unassailable truth of history, Morrison’s unforgettable novel is one of the great and enduring works of American literature.




Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem


Book Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Dapper Dan is a legend, an icon, a beacon of inspiration to many in the Black community. His story isn’t just about fashion. It’s about tenacity, curiosity, artistry, hustle, love, and a singular determination to live our dreams out loud.”—Ava DuVernay, director of Selma, 13th, and A Wrinkle in Time NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY VANITY FAIR • DAPPER DAN NAMED ONE OF TIME’S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD With his now-legendary store on 125th Street in Harlem, Dapper Dan pioneered high-end streetwear in the 1980s, remixing classic luxury-brand logos into his own innovative, glamorous designs. But before he reinvented haute couture, he was a hungry boy with holes in his shoes, a teen who daringly gambled drug dealers out of their money, and a young man in a prison cell who found nourishment in books. In this remarkable memoir, he tells his full story for the first time. Decade after decade, Dapper Dan discovered creative ways to flourish in a country designed to privilege certain Americans over others. He witnessed, profited from, and despised the rise of two drug epidemics. He invented stunningly bold credit card frauds that took him around the world. He paid neighborhood kids to jog with him in an effort to keep them out of the drug game. And when he turned his attention to fashion, he did so with the energy and curiosity with which he approaches all things: learning how to treat fur himself when no one would sell finished fur coats to a Black man; finding the best dressed hustler in the neighborhood and converting him into a customer; staying open twenty-four hours a day for nine years straight to meet demand; and, finally, emerging as a world-famous designer whose looks went on to define an era, dressing cultural icons including Eric B. and Rakim, Salt-N-Pepa, Big Daddy Kane, Mike Tyson, Alpo Martinez, LL Cool J, Jam Master Jay, Diddy, Naomi Campbell, and Jay-Z. By turns playful, poignant, thrilling, and inspiring, Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem is a high-stakes coming-of-age story spanning more than seventy years and set against the backdrop of an America where, as in the life of its narrator, the only constant is change. Praise for Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem “Dapper Dan is a true one of a kind, self-made, self-liberated, and the sharpest man you will ever see. He is couture himself.”—Marcus Samuelsson, New York Times bestselling author of Yes, Chef “What James Baldwin is to American literature, Dapper Dan is to American fashion. He is the ultimate success saga, an iconic fashion hero to multiple generations, fusing street with high sartorial elegance. He is pure American style.”—André Leon Talley, Vogue contributing editor and author




My Beloved Harlem


Book Description

GROWTH FOR THE INNER SPIRIT, WHILE CLEANSING THE PROOF OF EXISTING CIRCUMSTANCES.




Forever Harlem


Book Description

New York's hometown newspaper combines its vast archives with the resources of the Uptown Chamber of Commerce to provide an informative and rich visual history of Harlem.




Baldwin's Harlem


Book Description

Baldwin's Harlem is an intimate portrait of the life and genius of one of our most brilliant literary minds: James Baldwin. Perhaps no other writer is as synonymous with Harlem as James Baldwin (1924-1987). The events there that shaped his youth greatly influenced Baldwin's work, much of which focused on his experiences as a black man in white America. Go Tell It on the Mountain, The Fire Next Time, Notes of a Native Son, and Giovanni's Room are just a few of his classic fiction and nonfiction books that remain an essential part of the American canon. In Baldwin's Harlem, award-winning journalist Herb Boyd combines impeccable biographical research with astute literary criticism, and reveals to readers Baldwin's association with Harlem on both metaphorical and realistic levels. For example, Boyd describes Baldwin's relationship with Harlem Renaissance poet laureate Countee Cullen, who taught Baldwin French in the ninth grade. Packed with telling anecdotes, Baldwin's Harlem illuminates the writer's diverse views and impressions of the community that would remain a consistent presence in virtually all of his writing. Baldwin's Harlem provides an intelligent and enlightening look at one of America's most important literary enclaves.




Harlem Bible


Book Description

Harlem Bible---In the Beginning by Grant Harper Reid (Uptown Special-Rare Jimi Hendrix plays Harlem Vintage Photo Collection-Included) Multi-Book Award-winning author Grant Harper Reid has authored his second 5-Star book Harlem Bible which right out of the bat became an NAACP Mid-Manhattan Black History Month Founders Day Award Winner. Grant has taken a nod from the old master Lao Tzu the keeper of the Imperial Archives who proclaimed to the world, "A Good Reckoner Needs No Tally." In "Harlem Bible" Reid demonstrates himself to be a good reckoner indeed. Reid's first book was considered to be a work of pure literary genius, full of humor that pushes the envelope. Harlem Bible is a delightfully amazing and exceedingly enjoyable book. Grant reminiscences his early years as an innocent young black child growing up in Harlem and the suburbs of New. We are weaved through the author's past with flashbacks and timelines that are assembled and chock full of fascinating bygone circumstances of yesteryear. The impetus behind the Harlem Bible came from the author's angst as his beloved Harlem neighborhood became gentrified. With gentrification came newcomers who distorted and misrepresented the historical descriptions of his community. Grant took it personally when condescending intruders flooded onto his beloved streets and defined Harlem's glorious past to suit their own one-sided cravings. Reid watched as many authentic Harlemites passed away taking their tales with them to their hereafters. He chose to do something about it and thus he wrote the Harlem Bible. Harlem Bible arranges the groundwork with corroborated verifiable information then discharges it with reflections for the benefit of the readers. Please don't misperceive the Harlem Bible with the usual pasteurized half-stepping Negro books with no basis in fact. If you want to understand the hidden black culture that most colored people won't admit to then this book is for you. Harlem Bible is a look through Grant's life with his family, friends, associates, and adversaries. We follow little Grant as he's bussed to an all-white public school in the Bronx. While there he discovers for the first time what it's like to be a black boy when white students call him Nigger. We find out the authors reaction when he goes to a black summer camp and the "It" girl asks him for a dance. We learn of Reid's reaction at a Jewish day camp after he attempts to befriend the beautiful Jewish American Princess who rebuffs him and won't give him the time of day? What happens to the young author when he sneaks into Jimi Hendrix's limousine without the proper authorization? Discover what happens when the author looks into the mirror and mistakenly concludes that, "he ain't got one scintilla of talent" himself. Laugh with and at him as he attempts and nosedives downward when he wants to become a black hippie. What happens when Grant visits the mixed-race Negro hillbillies called Jackson Whites and believes they want to make him their main dinner course? The Harlem Bible journeys in a world full of jazz, rhythm & blues, soul music and rock & roll and famous celebrities. Take a breathtaking gallop into this world full of upwardly mobile African-Americas, original uptown hang-outs, riots, romance, civil rights and the underworld as this innocent young man tries to acquire a fair and equal education. Oh, the gangsters, ministers, stars and a potpourri harebrained, zany characters. Extra Special Rare Vintage "Jimi Hendrix Play's Harlem" photographs! Contact: www.rhythmforsale.com email: [email protected]




The Harlem Charade


Book Description

Fans of Chasing Vermeer will love this clever mystery about art, artifice, and the power of community. WATCHER. SHADOW. FUGITIVE.Harlem is home to all kinds of kids. Jin sees life passing her by from the window of her family's bodega. Alex wants to help the needy one shelter at a time, but can't tell anyone who she really is. Elvin's living on Harlem's cold, lonely streets, surviving on his own after his grandfather was mysteriously attacked.When these three strangers join forces to find out what happened to Elvin's grandfather, their digging leads them to an enigmatic artist whose missing masterpieces are worth a fortune-one that might save the neighborhood from development by an ambitious politician who wants to turn it into Harlem World, a ludicrous historic theme park. But if they don't find the paintings soon, nothing in their beloved neighborhood will ever be the same . . .In this remarkable tale of daring and danger, debut novelist Natasha Tarpley explores the way a community defines itself, the power of art to show truth, and what it really means to be home.




The Last Leaf of Harlem


Book Description

A literary event—selected and previously uncollected fiction by the woman who was the last surviving member of the Harlem Renaissance. When Dorothy West died in 1998, she was the last surviving member of the Harlem Renaissance, a contemporary of Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Richard Wright. Popular history holds that between the publication of her two novels (The Living is Easy in 1948 and The Wedding in 1995), Dorothy West fell silent. In fact, there was never a time in Dorothy West's life in which she was not writing and publishing. The Last Leaf of Harlem gathers West's writing from these supposedly silent years--syndicated fiction in the New York Daily News, pieces for the Work Progress Administration's Federal Writer's Project, and publications in small journals and magazines--along with known and beloved pieces by this extraordinary writer. Many of these stories, describing and exploring marriage, loss, family life, and poverty were lost until now. The Last Leaf of Harlem brings together the almost-forgotten pieces of Dorothy West's lifework, and gives the reader a fresh look into a remarkable writer and career. DOROTHY WEST was born in Boston circa 1908. At her death in 1998, she was the last surviving member of the Harlem Renaissance. Her works include: The Living is Easy, The Wedding, and The Richer, The Poorer. LIONEL C. BASCOM is a professor of English at Western Connecticut State University. A long-time investigative journalist, Bascom has specialized lately in the discovery of forgotten or neglected literary manuscripts by early 20th Century African-Americans, black folklore and stories about black culture in the United States. He is the editor of A Renaissance in Harlem and lives in Danbury, Connecticut.