Marcia Mayne travels a world full of books, music, art, fun people and great food. She raves about them constantly. Currently, she is journeying through Jamaica, her home country, to discover the places she missed.
Harlem Week was organized 37 years ago by the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce as Harlem Day, a one-day celebration of the rich economic, political, artistic and cultural history of the community. It was also intended as an effort to counter some of the negative images of Harlem and lift the spirits of its citizens.
Since then, Harlem Week has evolved into a month of street fairs, musical performances and sporting events. This year, more than 100 activities, including film screenings, restaurant specials, parties and an auto show are planned.
The highest mountain range in Southern Africa, the Drakensberg Mountains reaches 11,424 feet. This part of the mountain is the Sani Pass, a 5 1/2 mile unlit dirt road that connects KwaZulu Natal to the Kingdom of Lesotho.
Sani Pass Switchback, Drakensberg Mountains
Sani Pass, from Lesotho
The view of the Sani Pass from 9,400 feet, in Lesotho.
Last week, I mentioned a friend who had pointed out a certain phrase in one of India.Arie’s songs. A few
Kemistry
days later, I got a text that he was going to be visiting New York City. I mention this friend because he also introduced me to Kem. We have the same taste in music and when we get together the conversation usually veers towards books, movies, wine and food.
I hadn’t thought of Kem until my blog buddy, Tosh Fomby, featured him in a post last week. I’ve been listening to him again and again.
The first time I heard Kem, I though he sounded very much like Al Jarreau. My friend and I have been longtime Jarreau fans. I couldn’t believe when he said it wasn’t. The more I listened, though, the more I realized that it wasn’t Jarreau. Different phrasing, different sound all together but just as enjoyable. Kem can sing for me any day of the week.
Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Kem was raised in Detroit where he still lives. He’s a self-taught musician who began playing the piano at age 5. Unfortunately, Kem got into drugs and hit rock bottom several years after high school, but thankfully pulled himself together.
In 2002, he produced his first CD, Kem Kemistry, which sold 10,000 copies and got Universal Motown interested. His latest CD is Intimacy.
Take a listen to Kem’s Why Would You Stay. [youtube]X-H8xf-gtME[/youtube].
Bonus track, Love Calls [youtube]9Pl_Y5A-ieI[/youtube]
Good news: if you’re in the New York/New Jersey area, Kem will be performing at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark on August 12th.
When I lived in Jamaica, we’d go to the beach regularly. My older male cousins were all good swimmers
Jamaican Flag
and on one occasion, I asked one of them to teach me to swim. He led me out to where my feet no longer touched the sand. Then he let go of my hand and yelled as he turned towards shore, that I should swim.
I think of that incident now as I reflect on Jamaica’s 49 years, and take a personal assessment of how it has handled its own navigation as an independent nation.
In August, 1962, Jamaicans were giddy with the prospect of self-government after 300 years of British
rule. (There was a semi-independence period from the mid- to late 1930s under universal adult suffrage. Political parties were formed and the first election took place in 1944. Full independence came later, in 1962.)
Imagine if you will, how Harlem must have looked in the early 1900s. Except for a few buildings like the Koch & Company store between Sixth and Seventh Avenues (the building still stands), churches and banks, much of 125th Street west of Fifth Avenue was populated by row houses and tenement buildings with stores at street level.
On the southwest corner of 125th Street and Seventh Avenue was the Winthrop Hotel, a six story building that took up Seventh Avenue between 124th and 125th Streets. Beyond that, several large tracks of land lay undeveloped.
The Winthrop was one of a few prominent buildings in Harlem but in 1912, the owner, Gustavus Sidenberg, demolished it and commissioned a new building, the Hotel Theresa, named in honor of his late wife.
Hotel Theresa now the Theresa Towers, Harlem
Designed by the architectural firm of George & Edward Blum, the Hotel Theresa was Harlem’s ‘first great hotel.’ It stands 13 stories and was the tallest building in Harlem at the time. The Theresa had 300 rooms and was planned as an apartment hotel for long-term guests. Suites had one to three rooms and ensuite baths. One hundred of the rooms were reserved for short-term guests.
The entrance to the hotel, on Seventh Avenue, led to a thirty by thirty-five foot lobby area with a marble staircase leading to the main lobby on the second floor, a waiting room, ladies’ parlor and smoking room. Several stores, including a barbershop, a tailor and a delicatessen occupied the ground floor.
Located on the top floor of the hotel, the dining room offered diners magnificent views of Harlem, the New Jersey Palisades and Long Island Sound. Residents and guests could have their meals delivered to their suites or take them in the dining room, which seated 272.
Listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, the Apollo Theatre is the landmark music hall that introduced performers such as Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Lauryn Hill, James Brown, Billie Holiday, Marvin Gaye, Luther Vandross and countless others. It’s also been home to Showtime at the Apollo. Amateur Night introduces new musicians to the public.
Apollo Theatre
The Apollo Theatre is located on125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr and Frederick Douglass Boulevards in Harlem.
Of all the places I’ve lived, Harlem is the only one that makes me constantly aware of history.
On my block, for example, the famous Great Day in Harlem photo of black and white jazz musicians was shot in 1958. From time to time, as I’ve looked out my window to see various groups recreating that iconic photo.
When I get tired of creating images with words, I look to art or design to rest my eyes, free my brain and inspire me. Most times, the place I head to is The Studio Museum in Harlem, an oasis of calm and culture in the midst of street vendors, clothing stores and shops selling human hair and all kinds of ‘beauty’ supplies.
Since it first opened in 1968 in rented loft space on Fifth Avenue and 125th Street, The Studio Museum has been celebrating the work of artists of African descent. In 1979, it moved to its current location on 125th Street between Lenox (6th Avenue) and Adam Clayton Powell Jr Blvd (7th Avenue). Continue reading “The Studio Museum in Harlem”→
Though it is said that air travel is statistically safer than traveling our congested highways, it’s the high probability for loss that gets me. Thankfully, all 162 passengers on board Caribbean Airlines are alive but when I heard the news of the crash late Saturday night, I felt a sense of unease.
As someone who travels frequently, this type of news always shakes me even though my attitude is, if it’s going to happen, there’s little I can do. I think of the time a few years ago in Spain when news reached us of a crash just as we were about to board a flight. We were delayed for several tense hours but when our flight was ready, we went with it. I also recall the American Airlines crashed near Queens in 2001. I tried not to see any of the photos as I was flying out the following morning. And finally, I think of a friend who was lost on Air France 447. The relief I’ve felt that no lives lost were almost overshadowed by these other thoughts.
My blog buddy, Elizabeth’s post yesterday at Mirth and Motivation had me straining to remember a song, a fragment of which floated tauntingly just outside my consciousness. Each time, I thought I had it, it floated further away from me.
India.Arie
I stayed up quite late listening to Jill and Macy, getting more and more frustrated because it wasn’t either of them and worse, I was no closer to finding out than when I began. No point doing an Internet search since I couldn’t even remember the words.
Sometimes, when I can’t solve a problem or remember something, I put it to bed and by the next morning, I’d wake with the answer.
I chuckled when I realized how quietly the information had slipped into my memory. The song, Brown Skin, by neo-soul, R&B singer,India.Arie, had been my personal anthem. How could I have forgotten it? There was a time when I played it so much, I was sure I had damaged it. Then, as one of my best friends who’d met a new love raved ceaselessly about Acoustic Soul, the CD that brought her to our attention, I listened again and heard things I didn’t realize were there.
one-day celebration of the rich economic, political, artistic and cultural history of the community. It was also intended as an effort to counter some of the negative images of Harlem and lift the spirits of its citizens.
