By Walter Rutledge This weekend Opera returns to Harlem. Art also makes a big statement uptown. While a Harlem landmark has a birthday.

By Walter Rutledge This weekend runs the gamut of arts events happening in the city. There are free dance, music, and film events for the entire family taking place in the village of Harlem. You can also hear music that echoes the African- American experience near Lincoln Center. On Sunday you can spend time soaking…

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFVjfbdTyeQ] The streets of Harlem are being run by baby-faced gun-toting kids who aren’t afraid to pull the trigger and leave a bloody trail of bodies in a new independent film that’s quickly making the rounds uptown.

There is already a bike lane on First Avenue in East Harlem, but except for the occasional delivery person, it’s mostly empty or home to illegally parked cars.

By Walter Rutledge Porgy and Bess triumphantly returned to Broadway on last night; Thursday, January 12, 2012 at the Richard Rogers Theatre with a new streamlined musical version of the beloved American folk opera.

By Walter Rutledge This weekend the New York City Ballet production of the holiday classic The Nutcracker Live From Lincoln Center appeared on public television. The George Balanchine version was brilliantly danced, and the spectacle was complete with a flying sleigh and colorful sets and costumes. The only color missing from the entire production was…

By Walter Rutledge Lillias White at Aaron Davis Hall Broadway star and Tony Award-winning singer and actress Lillias White will perform in concert, for the first time, at Aaron Davis Hall 7 p.m. Friday, November 4.

By Marc Rasbury There is not a person over the age of 15, who does not remember what they were doing around 8:45 am on the morning of September 11, 2001. That is when a large jumbo jet crashed into the World Trade Center Tower One. About 30 minutes later, a second plane crashed into…

The transportation committee of CB 11 voted to bring the complete street design for First Avenue, shown here in the East Village, to East Harlem.

Duke Ellington When his drummer Sonny Greer was invited to join the Wilber Sweatman Orchestra in New York City, Ellington made the fateful decision to leave behind his successful career in Washington, D.C., and move to Harlem, becoming one of the figures of the Harlem Renaissance.

Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., National Hero of Jamaica (August 17, 1887 – June 10, 1940),

When I first conceived of a life as a fiction writer I began, naturally, to read fiction with an eye toward learning the craft. I have always had an earth tongue. My imagination comes from a down home feeling that my grandmother and great-aunt kept alive in the family.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfZtMbEvKTk&w=640&h=390] Columbia University archaeologist Nan Rothschild walks her dog in Central Park each morning, not far from where William G. Wilson used to live—more than 150 years ago.