Trace a finger back from modern-day Harlem to the birth of its second revival and you’ll arrive at Red Rooste r Harlem, Leon says as we head back into central Harlem. A pitstop at The Edge Harlem, where the menu reflects the owners’ British-Jamaican-American heritage, rewards with jerk chicken tacos and homemade sorrel, a traditional Caribbean drink infused with hibiscus. “There’s artistic inspiration here and a honing of your craft that’s difficult to find elsewhere,” he adds.īack on the street, Leon and I head a couple of blocks northeast, passing a mixture of shiny condos, red-brick tenements and handsome brownstone townhouses. Writ large across the walls are shots of his neighbourhood: flamboyant hats worn for Sunday church services, a woman adorned in African beads, and a gentleman in a natty suit shooting the breeze. “Harlem has a super-high concentration of artists,” Milton says as he walks me through his space. It will always be the core of the city.”įrom the old guard to the new, we duck into the studio of Milton Washington, a photographer documenting local street life with his iPhone. “Sure, a bunch of younger people moved here looking for cheap rent, but this area is still where it all happens. “I don’t think too much has changed,” he muses. Despite growing concerns of gentrification, the neighbourhood he fell in love with then remains. The Jamaican-born milliner started making and selling hats in Harlem in the 1980s. Mr Bunn himself emerges from the workshop at the back of the store, surrounded by racks and shelves crammed with a rainbow of pork pie and fedora hats. “Being in Harlem has always felt like being part of a creative family,” he enthuses, as we approach Hats by Bunn, a boutique where he buys his dapper headwear. Having moved here from the Midwest 16 years ago, Leon set up his studio near the Harlem River, drawn by the area’s energy and sense of community. He’s swapped his work uniform of paint-splattered apron for a T-shirt emblazoned with one of his own graphic prints. Leon, a mixed-media artist who weaves his passion for 1990s hip-hop culture into his freestyle illustrations, is taking me on a walking tour of his favourite haunts. Nearly 100 years later, the historic neighbourhood is once again in the throes of a revival, thanks to a new generation of makers. The Great Depression, followed by decades of decline, signalled the end of an era, although Harlem’s legacy as a hotbed of artistic experimentation lived on. During the 1920s and 1930s, in a movement known as the Harlem Renaissance, an artistic explosion from Black writers, artists and musicians pinned this Upper Manhattan district to the map. Stretching 45 blocks from Central Park to 155th Street, Harlem is one of the most culturally rich neighbourhoods in the world, its character shaped by waves of migration, particularly from the Caribbean and the American South. Out of sight, old-school beats pump out of a boombox. A mosaic depicting the jazz greats who left their legacy on Harlem, including Cab Calloway and Count Basie, covers the length of a wall. Around us, market stalls sell dangly earrings, incense and African print paper fans. “I come here when I need creative inspiration,” artist Leon Johnson tells me as we emerge from the subway into the beating heart of Harlem. This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK).
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