The Harlem Reader: A Celebration of New York's Most Famous Neighborhood, from the Renaissance Years to the 21st Century

There is no neighborhood in America as famous, infamous, and inspiring as Harlem. From its humble beginnings as a farming district and country retreat for the rich, Harlem grew to international prominence as the mecca of black art and culture, then fell from grace, despised as a crime-ridden slum and symbol of urban decay. But during all of these phases there was writing in Harlem—great writing that sprang from one of the richest and most unique communities in the world. From Harlem’s most revered icons (like Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Ann Petry, and Malcolm X) to voices of a new generation (including Willie Perdomo, Mase, Grace Edwards, and Piri Thomas), The Harlem Reader gathers a wealth of vital impressions, stories, and narratives and blends them with original accounts offered by living storytellers, famous and not so famous. Fresh and vivid, this volume perfectly captures the dramatic moments and personalities at the core of Harlem’s ever-evolving story.

There is no neighborhood in America as famous, infamous, and inspiring as Harlem. From its humble beginnings as a farming district and country retreat for the rich, Harlem grew to international prominence as the mecca of black art and culture, then fell from grace, despised as a crime-ridden slum and symbol of urban decay. But during all of these phases there was writing in Harlem—great writing that sprang from one of the richest and most unique communities in the world. From Harlem’s most revered icons (like Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Ann Petry, and Malcolm X) to voices of a new generation (including Willie Perdomo, Mase, Grace Edwards, and Piri Thomas), The Harlem Reader gathers a wealth of vital impressions, stories, and narratives and blends them with original accounts offered by living storytellers, famous and not so famous. Fresh and vivid, this volume perfectly captures the dramatic moments and personalities at the core of Harlem’s ever-evolving story.

Publishers Weekly

Boyd, national editor at The Black World Today and history professor at the College of New Rochelle, has assembled a memorable "mosaic of impressions," as he states in the introduction, of "personal experiences, organizations, institutions, and the dramatic moments that are at the core of Harlem's ever-evolving history." Drawing on a wealth of works from short story writers, song composers, essayists, poets and activists, Boyd charts Harlem's history chronologically-from notes Alexander Hamilton made circa 1802 about his "Home on the Grange" in what was then rural Manhattan, to a short series of interviews Boyd conducted with contemporary Harlem leaders. Boyd ably combines jeremiads and odes. Among the former are James Baldwin's "Fifth Avenue Uptown: A Letter from Harlem," in which he describes a housing project that "hangs over the avenue like a monument to the folly, and the cowardice, of good intentions." Malcolm X denounces police brutality "when Brother Hinton was attacked with night sticks," which cracked open his scalp. Ann Petry praises the respite the Junto Bar and Grill provided for the "young women coming home from work-dirty, tired, depressed," and Mayo Angelou cheers Fidel Castro, who stayed in Harlem's Theresa Hotel, while Sonia Sanchez evokes the days when she was one of the homegirls "who smiled and danced and kept our dresses down because everybody knew we were going to make something of our lives." An insightful book that will undoubtedly find a place in many classrooms, it provides a textured overview of one of the world's most famous neighborhoods. (Apr.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

HERB BOYD is the national editor at The Black World Today, an online publication. He currently teaches African and African-American history at the College of New Rochelle in Manhattan. Boyd is also coeditor with Robert Allen of the American Book Award–winning collection Brotherman and, more recently, editor of Autobiography of a People. He resides in Harlem with his wife, Elza Dinwiddie-Boyd, also a noted writer and college professor.