Benjamin Rucker, Black Herman of Harlem

Benjamin Rucker (1892–1934) was an American stage magician, better known by his stage name Black Herman. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Select list(s) to subscribe toHarlem World Magazine Example: Yes, I would like to receive emails from Harlem World Magazine. (You can unsubscribe anytime)Constant Contact Use. Please leave this field blank.By submitting…

A Long History Of Tea In Northern Manhattan, NY

Tea in Harlem has been a constant since its early years with the Muscoota Indians in East Harlem to the Harlem Renaissance with Lelia Walker’s Dark Tower on 136th Street in Central Harlem to today. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Select list(s) to subscribe toHarlem World Magazine Example: Yes, I would like…

Kress 5-10-25 Cent Store, Harlem

On the afternoon of March 19, 1935, Lino Rivera, a 16-year-old Puerto Rican youth, was observed stealing a ten-cent pocket knife from the E. H. Kress 5-10-25 cent store designed by architect Seymour Burrell on 125th street in New York’s Harlem Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Select list(s) to subscribe toHarlem World…

Henry “Taj Mahal” Saint Clair Fredericks, Harlem

Henry Saint Clair Fredericks (born May 17, 1942), who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Select list(s) to subscribe toHarlem World Magazine Example: Yes, I would like to receive emails from Harlem World Magazine. (You can unsubscribe anytime)Constant Contact…

Elizabeth Catlett, Passes at 96

Elizabeth Catlett, whose abstracted sculptures of the human form reflected her deep concern with the African-American experience and the struggle for civil rights… Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Select list(s) to subscribe toHarlem World Magazine Example: Yes, I would like to receive emails from Harlem World Magazine. (You can unsubscribe anytime)Constant Contact…

Reginald E. Gilliam, Jr., Passes

Reginald E. Gilliam, Jr., a trailblazing African-American lobbyist and most recently Sodexo Senior Vice President, Government Affairs, passed away at the age of 67 on March 28, 2012 after succumbing to lymphoma. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Select list(s) to subscribe toHarlem World Magazine Example: Yes, I would like to receive emails…

East Harlem’s Louie Lump Lump, Rao’s and Other Histories

On a December night in 2003, at Rao’s, the legendary restaurant on Pleasant Avenue in East Harlem, a man nicknamed Louie Lump Lump (pictured above) shot another patron after reportedly taking issue with his disparaging comment about the female singer’s rendition of “Don’t Rain on My Parade” from “Funny Girl.” Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up…

Canada Lee Born in Harlem (video)

Lee was born as ‘Leonard Lionel Cornelius Canegata on March 3, 1907 in Harem, New York City. He was raised by his West Indian parents in Harlem, NY. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Select list(s) to subscribe toHarlem World Magazine Example: Yes, I would like to receive emails from Harlem World Magazine.…

Harlem’s Jimmy Castor, Dies at 71 (video)

Jimmy Castor, a singer, instrumentalist and songwriter whose mastery of genres from doo-wop to Latin soul to funk, and instruments including saxophone and bongos earned him the title Everything Man, died on Monday in Henderson, Nev. He was 71. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Select list(s) to subscribe toHarlem World Magazine Example:…

Walter’s World: Kwanzaa Celebration- Regeneration Night at the Apollo

By Walter Rutledge Kwanzaa has become a nationally recognized celebration since it’s in inception in 1966. The concepts embodied in the seven principles known as the Nguzo Saba are universal in today’s society, but were extremely relevant to the civil rights era Americans of African decent; who were rekindling the concepts of self-determination, economic empowerment…

Rev. Frederick J. “Ike” Eikerenkoetter II In Harlem (video)

Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II was born in Ridgeland, South Carolina, and was of African American and Indo (Dutch-Indonesian) descent. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Select list(s) to subscribe toHarlem World Magazine Example: Yes, I would like to receive emails from Harlem World Magazine. (You can unsubscribe anytime)Constant Contact Use. Please leave this…

Walter’s World: Dance and More Bearden

Complexions Contemporary Ballet fall season at the Joyce Theatre (175 8th Ave at 19th St) Tuesday November 15 through Sunday November 27. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Select list(s) to subscribe toHarlem World Magazine Example: Yes, I would like to receive emails from Harlem World Magazine. (You can unsubscribe anytime)Constant Contact Use.…

Harlem’s Duke Ellington, Photograph By Lee Tanner (video)

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. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Select…

Harlem’s Ellsworth Raymond “Bumpy” Johnson

Ellsworth Raymond Johnson (October 31, 1905 – July 7, 1968) — known as “Bumpy” Johnson — was an American mob boss and bookmaker in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Select list(s) to subscribe toHarlem World Magazine Example: Yes, I would like to receive emails from Harlem World Magazine. (You…

Jazz vs. Racism By Greg Thomas

In the brief time that I’ve been posting blog entries to Integral Post, rarely have I explicitly discussed the issue of race, which, it seems to me, is a blindspot of the Integral community. Yet I intend, more and more, to visit the theme of race and view it through an Integral lens. Become a…