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. Suggested Reading 13 Black Female Artists Who Taught Women To Own Their Sexual Desires All About Nene Leakes Long-Awaited Return What We Know About Usher, Justin Bieber’s Confrontation at Beyonce’s Oscar Party…

The Root Staff

Published

February 28, 2011

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.

13 Black Female Artists Who Taught Women To Own Their Sexual Desires

All About Nene Leakes Long-Awaited Return

What We Know About Usher, Justin Bieber’s Confrontation at Beyonce’s Oscar Party

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The Internet Split After Amerie’s Tiny Desk Concert

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The Internet Split After Amerie’s Tiny Desk Concert

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.

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