This apartment building once housed the author of the song, "Lift Every Voice and Sing," which was often dubbed the black national anthem. As well as being the author of this historic song, James Johnson, among other things, was once the head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP. This is the jumping-off point of this exploration because it relates to two essential topics in this walk: the mass migration of Black Americans to Harlem, as a result of the Great Migration, and the growing emphasis and awareness on civil rights that both informed and was inspired by the Harlem Renaissance and later, African-American artistic movements The Harlem Renaissance came about for many reasons. One of the most critical reasons being the Great Migration of 6 million Black Americans from southern to northern and western states. The factors driving Black Americans out of the South were the racist Jim Crow laws, the terror of regular lynchings, and the unjust, discriminatory policies of sharecropping. The North was attractive; as it provided greater financial opportunities for Black Americans, especially factory jobs that came with WWI, as many young, white laborers in the North and West went off to war. New York was one of the cities that saw a greater spike in their black population, going from 91,000 Black Americans in the city in 1910 (2% of the city's population) to 164,00 by 1960 (12% of population) to 2.1 million by 2000 (27% of population). As Black Americans arrived in NYC, many moved in with family or friends whom they already knew. This could lead to overcrowding, as it had with other groups moving into NYC, and people would even have to take turns sleeping. When Harlem first developed as a neighborhood, it was intended for upper and middle class whites, many of them second-generation European immigrants. However, an economic crisis at the turn of the 19th century, along with rapid overdevelopment in the area, led to empty buildings and landlords desperate to fill them. Some enterprising realtors and developers turned to the Black New Yorkers fleeing from racist attacks downtown to fill the void. As Black migrants tried to move into Harlem neighborhoods, white residents would actively try to stop it, threatening landlords who rented to Black residents and even firebombing buildings that housed Black residents. As the Black population continued to grow, there was white flight out of the area, often to surrounding suburbs. With this white flight, the neighborhood quickly became an area filled with majority Black Americans, and became identified as the center of Black American culture. While discussing the Great Migration, we looked at paintings by Jacob Lawrence that are part of "The Migration Series," a series that depicts many of the common experiences of Black Americans fleeing to the North and West. The Harlem Renaissance came about largely because of these mass migratory movements; it also came about, as these Black Americans migrated because it was a reconceptualization "of 'the Negro' apart from the white stereotypes that had influenced Black peoples' relationship to their heritage and to each other. They also sought to break free of Victorian moral values and bourgeois shame about aspects of their lives that might, as seen by whites, reinforce racist beliefs" (Britannica). The Harlem Renaissance was from the 1910s to the 1930s, and in addition to being a cultural, artistic movement, it was also heavily tied to the political civil rights work of organizations at the time, making it a unique, and evermore significant movement. After discussing how the movement began, we looked at art by Palmer Hayden, a famous painter who depicted moments during the Harlem Renaissance. Hayden's work from this period has been criticized for playing into prevalent stereotypes about Black Americans at the time, everything from stereotypes about how they looked to what they ate. However, another reading of his art is that this style, much like the message of the Harlem Renaissance itself, is a reclamation of black identity and culture; a celebration of characteristics that had been given negative connotations by white Americans at the time.

The Savoy Ballroom was a dance hall on 141st Street and Lenox Avenue that was open from 1926-1958. The ballroom took up the entire block of real estate in Central Harlem, and Langston Hughes called it the "heartbeat of Harlem." The club's patrons were integrated from the start; the only thing necessary to get in was the ability to dance. The Lindy Hop and the Jitterbug both originated in the Savoy. Patrons were held to a strict, high dance standard. The Savoy had a double bandstand so that the music, and thus the dancing would never stop. The bandstand hosted many “Battles of the Bands” in its time, one of the most famous being one between Chick Webb, a young Black band leader from Baltimore, who overcame a chronic back injury to become one of the greatest jazz drummers of all time, and Benny Goodman, a famous white bandleader of the early 20th Century. The crowd went wild after Chick Webb and his band performed, making them the winners of the evening. This moment created an uproar, as the crowds watched a young, disadvantaged, Black musician win against a successful, famous, white bandleader of the time. It was historic, and it was representative of the inclusivity that the Savoy offered from the very start. Another star who made her name there was Ella Fitzgerald, who got her first big gig there as Chick Webb's vocalist. When Webb passed away, Ella even led the band for a short while. While discussing Ella, Chick, and the Savoy, we listened to "A Tisket A Tasket," as performed by Ella Fitzgerald and Chick Webb.

The Savoy closed its doors in 1958 as part of a slum clearance project, and the land was used to build an affordable housing complex called Delano Village the following year. Renamed The Savoy Park Apartments in the 2000s, they are still in use today and sit behind a plaque that discusses the history of the Savoy Ballroom, and the land that the apartments sit on. A question we discussed here: What is the significance of the loss of the "Heart of Harlem"? What is the significance of it becoming a massive apartment building instead? As a group, we didn’t have any specific answers to these questions. We talked about the significance of commemorating The Savoy through the apartment name and the plaque, as opposed to other forms of memorial and remembrance, such as statues, a form of memorial that has typically been reserved for mostly white, male American figures.

The block, in 1916, where the Cotton Club was to be built in 1923.

The Cotton Club was a jazz club founded in 1923 by Owney Madden, a mobster at the time, who used the club to sell his own alcohol during prohibition. When Madden established the club, he made it whites only, a stark contrast from the welcoming policy of the Savoy Ballroom. The club, in addition to its racist name, played heavily off of racist, dehumanizing stereotypes about Black Americans at the time. The Cotton Club had a theme of "stylish plantation," that "depicted Black employees as exotic savages or plantation residents." It was said that the music was orchestrated in hopes of creating a "jungle-like" atmosphere. These racist themes and ideas surrounding the club perpetuated degrading stereotypes about African Americans. Despite the fact that the club was so outwardly racist, Madden still had some of the best musicians of those days as band leaders; Duke Ellington and his orchestra were hired as the house band for a time, and after that, Cab Calloway and his orchestra took over as house band in 1931. In addition to these legends, the club regularly featured WC Handy, Bessie Smith, and so many others. Despite the fact that these performers were paid and celebrated by white audiences, they still could not sit in the crowd and have a drink or a meal. While on the block where the Cotton Club once was, we listened to Duke Ellington and his band perform "The Mooche" and discussed the various approaches that musicians and artists took to racism during the Harlem Renaissance. In looking at the Cotton Club's policies in contrast to the Savoy, a theme begins to emerge. We begin to understand two different approaches to the prevailing racism of the time by artists and activists during the Harlem Renaissance: The first, is a gradualist and integrationist ideal, the most famous proponent of which was W.E.B. DuBois. DuBois argued for fighting segregation through political means while improving the status of Black Americans within the legal and cultural realities of white America. The “talented tenth” of Black society would work their way up within white-dominated society while working toward political equality through legal and political reform. In this context, one can view the success of musicians such as Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway, even while playing in segregated venues, as a form of Black activism, albeit one we might not recognize today. Their popular success, even within the confines of a racist culture, was a victory for the gradual integration of Black performers. DuBois’s approach would set the stage for the legal approach of the NAACP and the integrationist activism of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s SCLC. The second strain of Black activism that emerged during the Harlem Renaissance was the separationist ideal promoted by Marcus Garvey. Garvey’s Black Nationalism focused on the reclamation of the Black American identity and argued for separation. This tradition would set the stage for Malcom X and Black Power in the 1960s and can be seen during the Harlem Renaissance in the work of Palmer Hayden and in some of the poems of Langston Hughes. The Great Migration came out of a desire to escape racism and the Jim Crow South but those who migrated North found many of the same practices, even in what was thought of at the time as the more liberal North. We then asked ourselves, how did the Cotton Club still see itself as different than the South? Or, rather, did it show that in some senses, the North was the same?

Today (April 2020), where the Cotton Club once was, there are townhouses on the corner of 141st Street and Lenox ave.

Strivers Row was the name for the block between West 138th and West 139th street, from Frederick Douglas Boulevard to Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard. The blocks, then, and still now, are filled with beautiful, ornate townhouses. The "King Model Homes'' were developed by David H King, recognized as the “Trump” of his time, in the 1890s. The most prestigious architects in the city were employed to design these luxury homes. The average working-class family in NYC at the time paid somewhere between $10 and $18 a month for rent. The rent for these homes started at $80 a month, ranging between $900 and $1700 a year. From when the buildings were built until the 1920s, Black residents were not allowed to live there. However, after financiers foreclosed during the 1895 financial crisis, and whites abandoned Harlem, the company eventually decided to rent to Black residents, but for $8,000 dollars a year. The official name for this neighborhood is now “the St. Nicholas Historic District,” but the colloquial name has always been “Strivers Row.” The nickname may have seemed to falter during the 1920s, as it referred to the incoming middle-class Black residents as upwardly mobile and “striving,” but some today might interpret this as mildly racist, as it distinguishes between those Black New Yorkers who lived here as uniquely able, as opposed to the majority of Black residents of Harlem. As the years went on, Strivers Row housed many famous names of the era, such as Fletcher Henderson, WC Handy, prominent leaders of the NAACP, and Eubie Blake, creator of the first successful Black-produced broadway show that was not a minstrel show. While at the stop, we listened to WC Handy's "St. Louis Blues." The plethora of Black artists and historical figures that moved into these homes, even after their racist history and title, again reminds us of this interesting theme throughout the Harlem renaissance; that while many saw the renaissance as a time to reclaim the Black American identity and to separate themselves from white culture and racist institutions, others found that the best way to overcome racism was to integrate into this culture, as exemplified by the move that many influential, Black figures made to Strivers Row. Langston Hughes is another influential artist who is associated with this block. When he was attending City College, Hughes would walk by Strivers Row on his way to school, where he would see a view of his college up on the hill above Harlem from Strivers Row. One day in his English class, he received an assignment to write a poem. Hughes walked home, past Strivers Row, to where he was living in the Harlem YMCA and sat down and wrote "Theme for English B." The poem explores race and identity, Black and white, the rich and the poor, and the contradiction between the prestigious school he went to on the hill, even geographically positioned above Harlem and Strivers Row, and the feeling of his neighborhood below it. Later on in the tour, we read "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," which, in many ways has a very different message. In "Theme for English B," Hughes, whose two grandmothers were Black enslaved women and two grandfathers were white slave owners, explores both Black and white identities and the overlap between them. In "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," he focuses more on the Black American identity, drawing a much more stark line between black and white. The two different approaches from these two disparate poems again hark back to this dichotomy during the Harlem Renaissance of integrationist versus separationist sentiments within the Black community in New York City. A few years ago, a home on this street sold for $3.75 million. I posed this question: What would Langston Hughes think of this price tag? As a group, we felt that Hughes might be conflicted about this price tag. On the one hand, it shows a newly grown appreciation for the area and the beauty of the neighborhood, a sentiment that was clearly not expressed when Hughes lived near there. On the other hand, this price tag is still very inaccessible for the majority of the community in the surrounding neighborhood, and many people who move there move for the beauty of the homes, not the surrounding area. I personally think that Hughes would be very conflicted over the price tag and what it represents in terms of the people who can afford to live there.

At Strivers Row today, April 2020, with the Living City Project and Tom Christensen, NYC jazz musician and teacher.

The Schomburg Center is located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard, at 136th Street and Malcolm X. It is a cultural institution that is now a branch of the NYC Public Library System that is devoted to the "research, preservation and exhibition of materials focused on African American, African Diaspora, and African experiences" (NYC Public Library). It was founded in 1925 by Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, as a response to being told that there's no such thing as African-American literature. Schomburg was a writer, activist, historian, and quite active in intellectual endeavors during the Harlem Renaissance. He was half Black, half German, and Puerto Rican. The center was started in 1925 with his collections, and he hoped it would be a place to recognize the contributions of Afro-Latino Americans and African-Americans. Langston Hughes' poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" is on the floor of the lobby of the Schomburg Center, along with art and text paying ancestral tribute through African ritual ground marking traditions (NYC Public Library). As a group, we read the poem and discussed the different ways that Hughes approaches the Black American identity in this, versus in "Theme for English B." We also spoke about why this was the poem chosen for this location; when thinking about the goal of Arturo Schomburg in creating this collection, it makes perfect sense that a poem would be chosen that connects very strongly to the Black American identity, as well as exploring the theme of the African heritage of Black Americans.

Me speaking in front of the Schomburg Center, April 2020.

The Harlem YMCA is located at 180 West 135th Street. The Harlem YMCA was initially created as a result of the YMCA's official racial segregation policy that lasted from 1851-1946. It is often called "the living room of the Harlem Renaissance" because of the way it brought together so many creative and intellectual minds of the time in such a unique living situation. Langston Hughes was one of its most famous residents, writing "Theme for English B" in his room there. Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, and Sonny Rollins are just some of the incredible thinkers of that time that either lived there or frequented it.

Today, the YMCA is still open in Harlem and is now a spotlight on the YMCA website as a place that has fostered so much important art and culture. This feature represents a very different outlook than the YMCA had when it created this branch out of its official segregation policy in the mid-1800s.

Small's Paradise was open from 1925 until 1986, making it one of the longest-standing jazz clubs from the Harlem Renaissance. When it was opened by Ed Smalls, it was one of the only Black-owned, integrated clubs at the time. Though it was small, the club has coined some famous terms and seen some famous people. Calling the stage "the dime" was invented there because of how small the stage was. “Jump joint” also originated there, and Malcolm X, before he was Malcolm X, was a busboy there.

On 133rd Street, between Lenox (Malcolm X Boulevard) and 7th Avenue (Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard) is a block that used to be called "Jungle Alley." While a very derogatory term, this street was known for embracing integration and diverse patrons at its clubs and businesses. At this block's height in the mid to late 20s, there were at least 20 jazz clubs on it. Some of those include Tillie's Chicken Shack, New Hope Baptist Church, The Nest Club, and Harry Hansberry's Clam House, one of the most notorious LGBT speakeasies in the late 1920s. The street also once housed New Hope Baptist Church, where Billie Holiday was originally discovered, and Bill's Place, who claims that they are where Billie Holiday was originally discovered. When I started this project, it came out of an interest in Billie Holiday, her style of singing, her singing of "Strange Fruit," and its effect on both her life and the musicians who came after her. The project evolved into one more about music and social change, and jazz music in Harlem and NYC, but I still emphasized learning about Holiday and her music. Growing up, Holiday's mother didn't like for her to listen to jazz music because her father was a jazz musician, so she would go to burlesque clubs to listen instead. Billie was discovered performing in New Hope Baptist Church by John Hammond, who was key in helping her to start working with Benny Goodman, who was up and coming at the time. Billie Holiday as a performer was raw. Her voice always sounded like it was on the edge of tears; she played with tone and rhythm and didn't stay within the lines. During the time Holiday was performing and beginning to get recognition, another iconic woman came onto the scene, Ella Fitzgerald. Ella Fitzgerald, as a musician and person, is a fascinating contrast to Holiday because she was always on pitch, always in tune, and always right on the beat. She sang with a voice delicate and sure of itself, and in her character, she was seen as less provocative than Lady Day. While both iconic, and deeply influential musicians and women, they went about it in very different ways While on Jungle Alley, we also talked about James Van Der Zee and his work. Van Der Zee was a photographer, best known for his comprehensive capturing of the Harlem Renaissance and leading figures in it. Van Der Zee was known for capturing the relationship between the human subject and their location, almost making the location, whether that be the street, a restaurant, or a home, a sort of subject as well. Van Der Zee shot portraits, weddings, funerals, protests, parades, and everything in between.

The plaque on Bill's Place that claims that is where Billie Holiday was discovered, April 2020.

As a singer, and one who is heavily influenced by the work of artists like Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, and those they inspired, I chose to sing on “Jungle Alley.” I performed "All of Me," in a style inspired by Billie Holiday with Tom Christensen playing saxophone, as a tribute to her. "All of Me" was the first Jazz standard I remember ever hearing and really connecting with. I first listened to the version by Sarah Vaughn, though it is performed by everyone from Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald to Frank Sinatra and Count Basie. Listening to "All of Me performed by Billie Holiday, as compared to when Ella Fitzgerald performs it, one can hear so many clear artistic differences between the way each singer sings this one song. While Holiday's voice is backed by a smaller band sound, emphasizing the raw nature of her vocals, Fitzgerald's backing by a large jazz band keeps her more uptempo and on beat. In Holiday's recording, she's almost echoed by the saxophone player Lester Young who was a close friend in music and life. Young's saxophone sounds almost like a soft, woman's voice when he comes in after Holiday, in a sense emphasizing her non-traditional, raw sound. One can hear the chemistry and bond between the two just through the way they play together in this song.

The Apollo Theater is located at 253 West 125th Street. It is the only musical institution from the Harlem Renaissance on this walk that is still standing and operating. The Apollo was opened in 1914 by Sidney Cohen, Benjamin Hurtig, and Harry Seamon, who got a 30 year lease at the time. They opened it as Hurtig and Seamon's New Burlesque Theater, and it was not open to Black patrons or performers at the time. Then, in 1933, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia started an anti-burlesque campaign and closed the theater down. 2 years after it was closed, in 1935, Sidney Cohen re-opened the theater, redirecting it from burlesque to a greater variety of entertainment and targeted advertising to the growing Black community in Harlem at the time. After that, the Apollo became a place for Black patrons and performers. The theater became known for its Amateur Night, welcoming anyone to the stage, which gave many famous performers a chance to get their starts, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, and the Jackson 5. Before each performer would go on stage on Amateur Night, they would rub the Tree of Hope, which is still in the theater today. The Tree of Hope started as a tree outside of The Lafayette Theater. Performers gathered around the tree when they were hoping to get hired and many did. Performers became superstitious that the tree gave them good luck. One day, the city was fixing sidewalks and was going to tear the tree down. Instead, Ralph Cooper, creator of Amateur Night, cut it down and brought it in for the performers to rub as good luck, in hopes that they didn't get booed off the stage. Today, the tree stump is still in The Apollo. The Apollo continues to stay a highly relevant icon in American and New York culture. Part of the theater's ability to stand the test of time is in the fact that it has always been open to all genres of music. Another reason the theater has stayed so relevant is its continuous association with political artists and social justice. Since it first opened, it has been a politically active spot, which is true of some, but not all Harlem cultural institutions that began during the Harlem renaissance. In these past few years, The Apollo has started Sounds of Social Justice, which came out of the era of Trump and the deaths of Treyvon Martin and Michael Brown. According to its directors, The Apollo hopes to stay in tune with what is happening with their people and their culture; they hope to highlight artists who talk about social change and feel that artists at the Apollo must reflect the times. Kamilah Forbes, currently Executive Producer of the Apollo, said of Sounds of Social Justice that, "It's not art for art's sake. I don't think we have that luxury right now. I don't think we as black people have ever had that luxury, and I think it's important that we and other institutions and policymakers recognize that and the power of the arts to incite change" (Apollo Theater). The Apollo continues to have significant relevance to popular culture today, especially within the Black community. Obama made it a stop on his 2012 campaign tour, singing Al Green, who has performed there many times, for the crowd. A question we discussed at this stop was: Why has this institution stood the test of time and continued to stay so relevant? As a group, we discussed the multiple reasons that we believe The Apollo has maintained its status after all these years. The overarching one was its ability to stay incredibly relevant, whether that has been through music or through its work with ongoing social issues; not only has The Apollo always accepted all kinds of musicians and artists, it has also always prioritized activism and work in social issues, especially ones that are important and applicable to many of its patrons and supporters. I think that through The Apollo’s openness to both musicians and its community’s needs, it has been able to become such a long-standing institution.

Me presenting at the Apollo theater in April, 2021.

We then visited the mosaics created by Faith Ringgold in the 125th Street station. The public artwork is entitled, "Flying Home: Harlem Heroes and Heroines." The title was inspired by Lionel Hampton's theme song, "Flying Home," which originated as something he hummed at an airport when he was nervous about flying home. The mosaic was created in 1996 and represents 28 Harlem-related institutions and people, with 16 on the downtown side and 12 on the uptown side. The people are flying as a representation of a yearning for freedom, and the mosaic features people and institutions such as the Harlem Opera House, the Apollo, The Cotton Club, Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Ralph Cooper, and many more. The question we discussed at this stop was: Why is this art here? Why was it made when it was? Who is it for? I felt this public artwork was the perfect way to end the walk. Not only does it bring in many of the signature institutions and key artists and musicians of the time, but it brings these people and places into today’s context, which is what I hoped to do through my learning about this movement. Although on my own learning journey I focused more on the history of the movement than its impact and influences today, the influence of the people, their art, and their civic work became quite clear to me. Through this online walk, I hope to either cultivate the learning experience that I had about the movement and its long-lasting impacts or hope to inspire the reader to dive deeper into both the history of the movement and the endless ways it has impacted American culture, even today. This project has only been my beginning. I am thrilled to learn more about such an influential, stirring movement, and I hope this online work inspires others to do the same.