We arrived on Sunday, the day I booked our little tour in Harlem, home to the great African American community and cradle of the “Harlem Renaissance”; the ideal historical moment to try to achieve fame if you were an ambitious black musician.
Harlem is located at the highest end of Manhattan; although many believe that it occupies the entire northern part beyond Central Park, in reality it does not come to understand the peninsula in all its width.
History Tips: the first to live in this area of the city were the Dutch who named it Nieuw Harleem in honor of the homonymous Dutch city.
In 1664 the English came to take control of it and renamed it Harlem.
The black inhabitants arrived there only in the early 1900s and already in 1919 they had quadrupled.
A musical tour
Even today we could not lie in bed, we were waiting for about an hour of meter to be able to cross all of Manhattan.
In fact, our hotel is located in Lower Manhattan while Harlem is Upper Upper Manhattan.
We had to be at the meeting point on time for them to check our reservations and we did it! We are very punctual!
So let’s start by following a fantastic guide who also sings famous songs during the explanations.
It is quite cold and the guide tries every time to stop and talk in a place that has a thread of sun.
We are like midges seeking light!
Brr…
The thing I will not forget is the admonition he gave us almost at every step: “Don’t step the poo”; in fact there is a lot of poo around (for those who are not practical the “poo” are the needs of animals).
Anyway, we initially stopped in a cantuccino for an introduction on gospel music starting from its birth in the cotton fields.
Precisely in the fields the slaves sang to keep a rhythm during the work but above all to comfort themselves and also to send messages from one field to another using the passages of the Bible, the only thing that their masters read to them.
Subsequently, with the abolition of slavery, the melodies changed but some fundamentals remained: the movement of the body, the beating of the hands in rhythm, the use of repeated phrases …
There has always been a common thread with religion in gospel music and not only for the songs of slaves; when they managed to escape from the south to get to Harlem they were often hidden in the churches of the area that became real communities that gave each other a hand.
This period was called “The First Great Migration” and as many as 1.6 million African Americans left the “rural” south to reach the north in the years between 1910 and 1940.
Strivers’ Row: where Harlem’s elite lived and still lives
Now we walk the same paths traveled by hundreds of prominent personalities: from Aretha Franklin to Ella Fitzgerald, but also poets like Langston Huges or sociologists like Du Bois.
We pass by the famous Strivers’ Row, with its apartments that have hosted prominent people and that still have exorbitant prices considering the neighborhood; it’s not the Bronx but it’s certainly not a rich neighborhood.
Initially these houses were designed by their designer, David H. King Jr., as housing for the upper-middle-middle white class.
In his idea, this ambitious project would turn into a neighborhood in its own right, a small happy island in northern Manhattan.
Unfortunately, the project failed due to the economic depression of 1895; moreover the white class was abandoning this area and David H. he refused to sell housing to African Americans.
The result was that these beautiful houses remained vacant until 1920, when they could finally be sold to black people for as much as $8,000.
Among the various buyers many were professional wrestlers, hence the name “strivers’ row” which appuno means “the road of the wrestlers”.
Music and the Apollo Theater
During the walk we also see many murals, some commemorating important characters, such as that of trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie.
Dizzy had twisted his trumpet, but he continued to play it anyway and after he became famous people wanted a crooked trumpet like his.
Then there is another family of murals, very important for people of color as it conveys messages for their safety.
This last thing struck me very much.
We had already noticed how much the differences related to the color of the skin were present and clear within the American (or at least New York) social fabric; but I did not think that it was necessary to write on a wall that they have rights and that the police have no power to do what they want about them; who can ask why they are stopped if they have done nothing.
A 14-year-old boy was brutally killed for catcalling a white woman; this child from the north had gone to the south to find relatives.
The mother wanted the funeral to be public and with the coffin open to show everyone what had happened to her son; this obviously only increased the already very strong disagreements throughout the country.
We also pass near a basketball court with the net, like those in the movies!
Unfortunately today there is no one to play, too bad because after all the films I have seen set in Harlem, I would not have liked to spy on them a little.
We then arrive in front of the famous Apollo Theater, where the biggest names in international Afro music have performed.
We did not enter to see the halls but on the other hand I photographed the plates with all the names of the stars who have made the history of music right here, where my feet are now.
The end of the tour at the gospel mass
We conclude the tour at Salem Church where we attend the gospel mass.
It is a special experience, of course like everyone I would have liked to attend a Sister Act style choir but I was already prepared not to see it having informed myself on the internet.
I expected a more varied choir instead are just some men a bit ‘old, however accompanied by good musicians so overall it is very nice.
I was very surprised by the style of the Mass, the faith is Methodist episcopal and has nothing in common with our Masses.
At the beginning the preacher asked us to introduce ourselves among tourists and faithful, and it is nice to shake hands with the members of that community that I must say have in their eyes a special light, a liveliness that practically does not exist with us, they are happy to be there and ready to hear the words of the preacher.
During the service some psalms and the Gospel are read, of which an interpretation has been given that is extremely more current and different from those that are normally heard in Italy.
They are very useful explanations in everyday life and also addressed to young people to transmit values to them.
Everything is interspersed with the songs of the small group but also with a surprise; a special guest who sang a single song and it was very nice to hear a female voice.
While the music spreads in the large hall and during the sermon looking around me there are many people with their eyes closed or who loudly say “Amen” or “Yes”, with hands raised to the sky and with all their soul; this is very close to my imagery of the relationship with religion of people of color who find relief from their suffering in this type of religious life.
After the service there is always lunch for the faithful, but Matteo and I took advantage of a comment made by the guide about IHOP, house of pancakes, and so we headed there.
We wait about a quarter of an hour but then the service is quite quick; we order 5 pancakes and scrambled eggs with avocado and baked potatoes.
I will always remember those fluffy, buttery eggs, and the combination with avocado is divine.
Even the pancakes are really good, one of the best dishes eaten in the city, they can be combined with 4 different sauces: maple syrup of two types, blueberry and strawberry.
Yankee Stadium
After lunch we pass to take a look at the Yankee Stadium, unfortunately I could not fit the visit of the stadium for incompatibility of the schedules and I was very sorry, I have never seen a baseball stadium; maybe in Japan I will be able to visit the Tokyo Dome, who knows.
History Tips: this stadium was completed in 2009, so it is quite recent, and since its inauguration it is the home of the New York Yankees.
It cost 2.3 billion dollars, of which about half are public, so (as of 2019) it is the most expensive sports facility in the world!
I had to come and see him also because I have to enter his Hard Rock Café!
The interiors are obviously very baseball-themed, with all the players’ shirts and other memorabilia, such as the rings that players receive with the victory of the MLB, the World Series.
We explore practically nothing of the area around the stadium but that little is enough for me; the neighborhood is extremely poor and full of beggars, you can breathe a completely different air from that of the rest of the city, and it is full afternoon.
Dyker Heighs, where Christmas is at home!
On the way back from Harlem we pass by the Flatiron Building, which unfortunately is under renovation but still I like it a lot and with it the various skyscrapers of 23rd street.
This is an important hub for the subway and allows us to go to Brooklyn, in the Dyker Heighs neighborhood to see the houses decorated for Christmas.
From Manhattan to Dyker Heighs it takes a while, more or less 40min by subway, and another quarter of an hour on foot to reach the most famous streets, but you can not give up for these reasons.
Initially I was worried about wandering in the evening so far from the hotel but I couldn’t be more wrong; as soon as we arrived close to the recommended roads we found an incredible crowd of tourists and locals who walk around photographing these beautiful bright houses.
There is even police at intersections to handle the traffic of people and cars, a truly impressive scene.
The houses are wonderful, there are elegant and classic ones near absurd jumbles with all kinds of lights and bright characters.
One is entirely electric blue while another has a forest of trees all illuminated; a magical place that I have no idea what it is like to see for yourself, too bad for all that crowd.
We do not stay long because tomorrow the trip to Philadelphia awaits us with an alarm clock slightly later than in Washington but still quite early (at 6 we have the bus).
If you do not know where we started and where we will end, click below!
