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  • Watch: What Do You Know About Kwanzaa? 

    This article originally ran on Dec. 27, 2017. When The Root video producer P.J. Rickards and I stepped onto the streets of Harlem (full disclosure: my beloved hood), we were both surprised at the dearth of information about Kwanzaa, the African-American cultural holiday started more than 50 years ago. Honestly, I think Kwanzaa was more…

    By

    Angela Helm

    Published

  • Full Circle and Forward: The Renaissance of Dapper Dan

    Gazing down from a billboard overlooking 125th Street (aka Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard) in Harlem, “Dapper Dan”—born Daniel Day—appears every bit what his longtime moniker suggests. Adjusting the lapel of his impeccably tailored suit, he looks like a man who has arrived—though he never left the New York City neighborhood he called home. His…

    By

    Maiysha Kai

    Published

  • Get Twisted and Braided in Harlem 

    The numbers don’t lie: 71 percent of black Americans wore a natural hairstyle at least once in 2016. To find out more about protective styles and the amazing practitioners behind them, I took a journey up to 125th Street in Harlem, the international mecca for the natural-hair movement that’s taking black Americans of all ages…

    By

    Veronica Webb

    Published

  • NYC Man Who Forced His Girlfriend to Walk Naked Through Harlem Says She Volunteered to Shame Herself

    Today in news of masculinity so toxic, you’ll want to cuss out your computer or phone screen: the case of a New York City man who is standing trial for forcing his then-22-year-old girlfriend to walk naked through the streets of Harlem in January 2016 because he suspected that she was cheating on him. In…

    By

    Anne Branigin

    Published

  • 3-Year-Old Boy Allergic to Dairy Dies After Preschool Gives Him Grilled Cheese Sandwich: Report

    A New York City preschool has been shut down after it gave a grilled cheese sandwich to a 3-year-old student who was severely allergic to dairy. Little Elijah Silvera died as a result of the oversight, and now the Seventh Avenue Center for Family Services in Harlem will remain closed until the city’s Department of…

    By

    Breanna Edwards

    Published

  • Moonlight Director on Why New James Baldwin Film Needs to Be in Harlem

    After his history-making turn directing Moonlight, Barry Jenkins has chosen to tackle the work of one of America’s great literary icons: James Baldwin. Jenkins is adapting Baldwin’s novel If Beale Street Could Talk as his next feature film. As DNAinfo reports, Jenkins is choosing to stay true to the story by filming in Harlem, where…

    By

    Anne Branigin

    Published

  • On Whole Foods, Gentrification and the Erasure of Black Harlem 

    Bye-bye, black Harlem, glad I knew ye. Hello, Whole Foods, I do enjoy your products, but if you can gentrify greens, what chance do we really have?  I first moved to Harlem in 1998. I was a young single mother in graduate school with a 2-year-old. Harlem offered me respite, refuge and safety in blackness…

    By

    Angela Helm

    Published

  • An African in New York: Jazz Singer Somi’s Petite Afrique

    “I don’t take coffee; I take tea, my dear. Some extra rice, please, on the side…” My tea leaves steep as I wait for Somi in Silvana, a café and live-music venue on 116th Street in Harlem, just off Frederick Douglass Boulevard. The singer-songwriter—who has topped both jazz and world music charts whilst being compared…

    By

    Maiysha Kai

    Published

  • Republicans Hope for ‘Valentine’s Day Surprise’ in Harlem Election for NYC Council Seat

    Most people think of Valentine’s Day as a chance to spend time with the one you love, spend money on the one you want to love or console those who don’t have anyone who loves them anymore. No matter which category you’re in, most people don’t associate Valentine’s Day with voting—which is exactly what the…

    By

    Jason Johnson

    Published