Customer Reviews

Harlem is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America

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I was amazed to learn Harlem's iconographic identity only surged into existence around the beginning of the 20th century when African-Americans from many parts of the country and world showed up in large numbers. They were some of the best and brightest and most determined people of their day, determined to make an impact.

In the 1900's Harlem seemed to have no center but was made up of a vast number of cultures and traditions all blending and hitting against themselves. At its core it was dynamically creative; that was its commonality. These few blocks carved out of the Manhattan Island gave birth to scads of writers, all types of artists, political thinkers. The people were created by their environment just as much as they designed their neighborhood. Maybe in some ways neither people nor place created the other. The place and the people allowed one another to create them(it)self. Place, time and humanity exploded and Harlem as a place and as an idea was born. And we're all the better for it.

As a young writer Rhodes-Pitts moves north from her home state of Texas and begins to absorb Harlem. She does her research but finds more questions than answers, she goes to political meetings and becomes overwhelmed with all the divergent thinking and causes, she stands on the streets watching the many parades, demonstrations, the neighborhood's ever changing spew of notices, sidewalk graffiti, etc. She talks to the residents both the long and short term ones, she goes to funerals, she talks with the unique street people that only Harlem could have. I love how she doesn't come to any hard conclusions but let's herself be awash in the mythology of this place. She doesn't squash out it's legends by trying to pin down a one dimensional Harlem which would have sapped it of blood. She allows it to stay ever changing and vibrant by letting its beauty and lovely seediness continually recreate itself.

This review was based on an ebook galley supplied by the publisher.

Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, a native Texan who graduated from Harvard in 2000, moved to Harlem two years later to pursue professional opportunities in New York City. In 2004 she wrote an article about her experiences living there, and was encouraged to write this book, which is named after a 1948 essay by Ralph Ellison about the psychological and existential aspects of life in Harlem.

Rhodes-Pitts introduces us to several of her older neighbors, who have experienced the dramatic changes of this now resurgent section of Manhattan that counts Bill Clinton and other whites as new residents. Despite these recent changes, a culture of respect and camaraderie, based on mores of African Americans who migrated to New York from the Jim Crow South decades ago, still exists. We also learn about past residents of Harlem, including familiar ones such as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Marcus Garvey and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and less well known but no less important figures, including George Young, whose bookstore was known as the "Mecca of Literature Pertaining to Colored People", and Victoria Earle Matthews, the founder of the White Rose Home, which aided female emigrants establish a foothold and learn basic skills necessary to survive in a metropolis that existed beyond the imagination of the daughters of slaves and sharecroppers.

The book is divided into thematic chapters, which include the literature of Harlem, the neighborhood as a place of refuge, written signs and messages with overt and hidden meanings, and past and current efforts to keep the neighborhood from becoming gentrified or unduly commercialized.

The book ends with the author's observation of the African American Day Parade in Harlem, which serves as a celebration of life in the neighborhood but also as an account of the tension and stress that exists there, as peaceful residents are caught between hostile city police officers and young men who seek an outlet for their passions and frustrations.

Harlem Is Nowhere does not provide a comprehensive history of the neighborhood, particularly its founding and the story of the people who lived there before the Great Migration of blacks from the South in the early 20th century, and the personal stories are limited to the sections where the author has lived and knows best. Several key aspects of Harlem life are also excluded, most notably key figures in the entertainment industries of jazz and modern dance, and the vibrant nightlife at legendary spots such as the Cotton Club and Minton's Playhouse. However, the book does serve as an appealing and interesting set of observations about the famous and every day people who have influenced and contributed to the life of Harlem over the past century.

In a time of reality shows it is great to get a chance to read about a real place that is well know but well misunderstood. I loved reading the descriptive backdrop of Sharifa Rodes-Pitts' Harlem and all the unscripted drama or happening of life. It was also inspiring to read about the former organizations that existed at the height of Harlem's hay day as well as to morn their ceasing to exist. Always great to have a guide that is invested heart and mind. A wonderful read. Call to the artist and activist of the day to create and build community by being aware and understanding their surroundings.

Although this book suffers a bit from a lack of concrete direction, it is still an enjoyable journey through the past and present of Harlem. Pitts explores both the romantic notions and realities of the place, as well as the effects of the ongoing gentrification of the area. Pitts is a wonderful writer, but as a person who rhapsodized about the place before she got there, she is also the perfect observer and reporter of the truth of it. Definitely worth the read.

As a history buff, I was looking forward to reading this book. The author certainly provides a good deal of information however, she seems to rely heavily on quoting other people. Perhaps this seems more evident in the Kindle format, but after a while I was wishing that she rely less on the words of others. The book seemed to be a cross between a history of Harlem and a doctoral thesis on Harlem.

Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts has written an important book on a most important community...Harlem, NY. Long considered the cultural capitol of black America, Harlem in recent years has been undergoing yet another significant shift in its evolution. This evolution has been constant, and Rhodes-Pitts skillfully and insightfully notes each, from the founding of the village of Haarlem to it rapidly gentrifying present. What makes this book so compelling is that Rhodes-Pitts is not afraid to inject her own subjectivities into our understanding of the evolution of this community, pointing out how race and class have been ever present shapers of Harlem's fate and history. She places herself at the center of this evolving narrative by becoming a resident of this storied community herself. From the vantage point of community member she comes to see how increasingly Harlem's fate is being determined by an ever encroaching city bureaucracy in concert with real estate interests anxious to expand their gentrifying reach to upper Manhattan.

This book will stand as the definitive one for those who want to know how Harlem, NY got to its present state of million dollar condos and multimillion dollar brownstones. Both the upside and the problematics of these recent developments are fully explored in these pages. This is an important book by an important new writer.