This text is part of the special Pleasures notebook
More than a century after the emergence of the Harlem Renaissance movement to which the MET is devoting a new exhibition-event, the vibrant temple of African-American culture has changed a lot. But the spirit of Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington and others continues to float in northern Manhattan, well beyond the 110e Street.
A wind of renewal has been blowing for several years now in the heart of Harlem. Even if it sometimes provokes bursts of protests like in 2017. That year, a Whole Foods Market supermarket, which has become the symbol of urban gentrification, was inaugurated at the corner of Malcolm 125e Street. An opening which made residents of the neighborhood fear a surge in rents. In fact, the transformation of the former black ghetto of New York did not fail to arouse some tensions.
“Some people talk about gentrification, others, about rebirth,” Billy Mitchell tells me with a smirk. A true legend of northern Manhattan, “Mister Apollo” – the nickname everyone gives him here – worked as a handyman in the mid-1960s in the performance hall that earned him his nickname. On the Apollo stage, he saw the debuts of Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson. The godfather of the place, James Brown, also took him under his wing to pay for his studies.
“Before welcoming black artists, the Apollo was first, when it was inaugurated in 1913, a burlesque theater for whites,” recalls Mr. Mitchell, authentic guardian of this temple of African-American culture. . At the time, the hall still bore the name of its original owners, Benjamin Hurtig and Harry Seamon. It was not until 1934 that the Apollo changed its identity and opened up to more diversity by organizing the famous “Amateur Nights” on Wednesday evenings.
A colossal project
Some 90 years after this rebirth, the Apollo is still preparing to experience a new life. The emblematic address of the 125e Rue will take time off this summer to give her a makeover. Which will not prevent the shows from continuing to take place within the neighboring walls of Apollo’s Victoria Theater, inaugurated very recently by the mayor of New York, Eric Adams. This colossal development project also resulted in the opening, in 2023, of a 211-room hotel.
From the top of its 28 floors, the latest addition to the Renaissance family belonging to the Marriott group dominates all of Harlem and offers a panoramic view of the white brick building of the former Theresa Hotel. The latter has seen big names like Dinah Washington, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong parade under its roof. It was also the scene of a heist cleverly staged by Colson Whitehead in the pages of his most recent novel, Harlem Shuffle.
The first prestigious establishment to emerge in nearly a century in Harlem, the Renaissance would like to take over from the Theresa, converted into offices in 1971, to become the new rallying point for the neighborhood’s still teeming cultural scene. Its architects had the good idea of integrating the historic facade of the Victoria Theater into their plans. The latter once again shines brightly, at the foot of the hotel, after having known its glory days during the Roaring Twenties.
An expected exhibition
It was during this roaring decade that an important artistic and intellectual movement emerged which allowed the African-American community to express its cultural identity through literature, music, dance and theater. From the great migration of millions of African-Americans fleeing the segregated rural South to take refuge in the North at the beginning of the 20th centurye century, the Harlem Renaissance movement was long marginalized. But he was finally able to pass through the doors of major museums.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the first to offer such a comprehensive overview of how all these artists used the black subject to represent daily life in Harlem in the 1920s. The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism (on view until July 28) highlights the works of painter William H. Johnson, portraitist Laura Wheeler Waring and photographer James Van der Zee.
Beyond the prestigious museum backed by Central Park, the legacy left by the Harlem Renaissance remains perceptible once you pass the 110e Street. This symbolic border demarcates the wealthy neighborhoods of the ghetto sung by Bobby Womack in Cross 110th street. At the height of the 135e Rue, the Schomburg Center is offering a photo exhibition (until July 8) on Langston Hughes, whose ashes rest under the foundations of this reference institution on black culture.
A celebrated heritage
The illustrious poet and playwright drew heavily on jazz music to compose texts of great power and participate in the cultural emancipation of the black community. The words of Langston Hughes — which dance today on the walls and ceilings of the rooms of the new Marriott hotel on 125e — propelled him to become a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. And this, at the same time as he contributed his pen to the newsletter of the local branch of the YMCA.
Built in the early 1930s, the neighborhood’s “Y” quickly became the center of this renewal movement. Although the imposing YMCA building has been renovated several times, certain period works have remained in place, such as the fresco by Aaron Douglas whose existence had almost been forgotten over the years. The sublime mural traces African-American history, from slavery to the Harlem Renaissance, through dancing silhouettes.
Its wiggling shadows clearly illustrate the spirit of a movement which seems to float eternally on streets where the past often coexists with the present. It’s this Harlem that we celebrate from the small apartment at Bill’s Place, which brings back to life the atmosphere of rent parties from the 1920s to the National Jazz Museum, where Duke Ellington’s white piano sits. Without forgetting the legendary Smoke Jazz Club and the Red Rooster restaurant, paying homage to the no less legendary speakeasy of the same name.
This report was made possible with the support of the New York City Tourism Bureau and Air Canada, which offers daily flights to LaGuardia, the closest airport to Harlem.
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