The Root Recommends: 'Harlem Is Nowhere'

In Harlem Is Nowhere, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts walks readers through Harlem's storied streets, recounting its colorful history while narrating the complexities of its present condition.

Rhodes-Pitts weaves her own experiences with those of famous fictional characters from the Harlem Renaissance's most memorable novels. But readers also meet Harlem's real-life protagonists — Zora Neale Hurston, James Van Der Zee, Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison and others — whose difficulty in cementing their identities in a new place, Rhodes-Pitts asserts, is an experience that still rings true for the black residents of a gentrifying Harlem.   

This thoughtful combination of self-reflection and literary analysis is sure to enlighten the curious and intrigue Harlem aficionados everywhere. 

Previous recommendation: CIAA.