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Harlem Is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America
A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist and New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Harlem Is Nowhere brilliantly captures the essence of Harlem at a crucial moment in the neighborhood's history. For a century Harlem has been celebrated as the capital of black America, a thriving center of cultural achievement and political action. As gentrification encroaches, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts untangles the myth and meaning of Harlem's legacy. Examining the epic Harlem of official history and the personal Harlem that begins at her front door, Rhodes-Pitts introduces us to a wide variety of characters, past and present. At the heart of their stories, and her own, is the hope carried over many generations, hope that Harlem would be the ground from which blacks fully entered America's democracy.Rhodes-Pitts is a brilliant new voice who, like other significant chroniclers of places -- Joan Didion on California, or Jamaica Kincaid on Antigua -- captures the very essence of her subject."No geographic or racial qualification guarantees a writer her subject . . . Only interest, knowledge, and love will do that -- all of which this book displays in abundance." -- Zadie Smith, Harper's
308 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
December 7, 2019
I grew up near Harlem and then lived there for the first decade of my adult life. All my kids were born there so it's about as "home" as any place for me. I'm not Black so I was not rooted into the history of the place, but I was also not a gentrifier. I love Harlem and this book just really captured the essence of the place, the people, and some of the tensions.
January 15, 2011
I was amazed to learn Harlem’s iconographic identity only surged into existence around the beginning of the 20th century when African-Americans from many parts of the country and world showed up in large numbers. They were some of the best and brightest and most determined people of their day, determined to make an impact.
In the 1900’s Harlem seemed to have no center but was made up of a vast number of cultures and traditions all blending and hitting against themselves. At its core it was dynamically creative; that was its commonality. These few blocks carved out of the Manhattan Island gave birth to scads of writers, all types of artists, political thinkers. The people were created by their environment just as much as they designed their neighborhood. Maybe in some ways neither people nor place created the other. The place and the people allowed one another to create them(it)self. Place, time and humanity exploded and Harlem as a place and as an idea was born. And we’re all the better for it.
As a young writer Rhodes-Pitts moves north from her home state of Texas and begins to absorb Harlem. She does her research but finds more questions than answers, she goes to political meetings and becomes overwhelmed with all the divergent thinking and causes, she stands on the streets watching the many parades, demonstrations, the neighborhood’s ever changing spew of notices, sidewalk graffiti, etc. She talks to the residents both the long and short term ones, she goes to funerals, she talks with the unique street people that only Harlem could have. I love how she doesn’t come to any hard conclusions but let’s herself be awash in the mythology of this place. She doesn’t squash out it’s legends by trying to pin down a one dimensional Harlem which would have sapped it of blood. She allows it to stay ever changing and vibrant by letting its beauty and seediness continually recreate itself.
This review was based on an ebook galley supplied by the publisher.
In the 1900’s Harlem seemed to have no center but was made up of a vast number of cultures and traditions all blending and hitting against themselves. At its core it was dynamically creative; that was its commonality. These few blocks carved out of the Manhattan Island gave birth to scads of writers, all types of artists, political thinkers. The people were created by their environment just as much as they designed their neighborhood. Maybe in some ways neither people nor place created the other. The place and the people allowed one another to create them(it)self. Place, time and humanity exploded and Harlem as a place and as an idea was born. And we’re all the better for it.
As a young writer Rhodes-Pitts moves north from her home state of Texas and begins to absorb Harlem. She does her research but finds more questions than answers, she goes to political meetings and becomes overwhelmed with all the divergent thinking and causes, she stands on the streets watching the many parades, demonstrations, the neighborhood’s ever changing spew of notices, sidewalk graffiti, etc. She talks to the residents both the long and short term ones, she goes to funerals, she talks with the unique street people that only Harlem could have. I love how she doesn’t come to any hard conclusions but let’s herself be awash in the mythology of this place. She doesn’t squash out it’s legends by trying to pin down a one dimensional Harlem which would have sapped it of blood. She allows it to stay ever changing and vibrant by letting its beauty and seediness continually recreate itself.
This review was based on an ebook galley supplied by the publisher.
February 17, 2011
For me, one of the joys of reading is finding a book that leads me to another book, or even several books. Perhaps a passage will remind me of something I read long ago, or maybe the writer's prose will gently guide me to something I intended to read but never did, often absolving my guilt in the process. I found this joy in Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts' Harlem is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America. Her references to the great writers of the Harlem Renaissance led me to a number of titles that were already on my personal bookshelf as well as a few that were not.
Most important, Rhodes-Pitts' book led me to rediscover a collection of Ralph Ellison's essays called Shadow and Act, and specifically his essay “Harlem is Nowhere.” Rhodes-Pitts uses Ellison's title and parallels his journey through the neighborhood. Harlem is Nowhere led me to rediscover Ralph Ellison's wonderful essay Harlem is Nowhere. Rhodes-Pitts's book uses Ellison's title, and parallels his journey through the neighborhood. Ellison's Harlem, which he studied and documented in 1948, is a place that is both the scene and symbol of black American life. Rhodes-Pitts' syncopated prose and respectful riff on Ellison's essay gives readers a sense of what has changed on the other side of Manhattan's 110th Street -- and what has not – in the last 63 years.
Of course, there are many voices you would expect to hear in the pages of Harlem is Nowhere: Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Zora Neal Hurston, Amiri Baraka, to name a few. As I read, an almost magnetic pull led back to these books and anthologies which dot my bookshelves. But for every character from Harlem's history I thought I knew, Harlem is Nowhere gave me little-known figures that did not turn up in my book collection. In a chapter called "Harlem Dream Books," Rhodes-Pitts tells the story of Alexander Gumby, a fascinating yet tragic man with a profound sense of racial pride. He felt driven to compile, collect, and curate the achievements of black Americans into scrapbooks. I had never heard his name before, but he became as important to me as the literary giants whose work I was compelled to re-read.
But Rhodes-Pitts' Harlem is Nowhere is not just another book about Harlem's colorful figures, its glory days, or a meditation on the literary boldface names of the Harlem Renaissance and beyond. Rhodes-Pitts also interviews contemporary Harlem residents -- the ordinary people she encounters on the street and at community meetings. She analyzes messages left by anonymous scribes who write in chalk on the sidewalks of Lenox Avenue. This keeps her narrative rooted in the present -- and kept me from constantly running to my bookshelf.
Still, Harlem's tangled history is always in the background, intoxicating in both its richness and its realities. But by weaving the past and the present together, Rhodes-Pitts reveals, even to those who may have never ventured into Harlem, why it is a place of dreams and why it endures. And most important, she pushes her readers to explore the books and writers that made Harlem such a place of imagination and memory. For a reader like me, it just doesn't get any better.
Most important, Rhodes-Pitts' book led me to rediscover a collection of Ralph Ellison's essays called Shadow and Act, and specifically his essay “Harlem is Nowhere.” Rhodes-Pitts uses Ellison's title and parallels his journey through the neighborhood. Harlem is Nowhere led me to rediscover Ralph Ellison's wonderful essay Harlem is Nowhere. Rhodes-Pitts's book uses Ellison's title, and parallels his journey through the neighborhood. Ellison's Harlem, which he studied and documented in 1948, is a place that is both the scene and symbol of black American life. Rhodes-Pitts' syncopated prose and respectful riff on Ellison's essay gives readers a sense of what has changed on the other side of Manhattan's 110th Street -- and what has not – in the last 63 years.
Of course, there are many voices you would expect to hear in the pages of Harlem is Nowhere: Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Zora Neal Hurston, Amiri Baraka, to name a few. As I read, an almost magnetic pull led back to these books and anthologies which dot my bookshelves. But for every character from Harlem's history I thought I knew, Harlem is Nowhere gave me little-known figures that did not turn up in my book collection. In a chapter called "Harlem Dream Books," Rhodes-Pitts tells the story of Alexander Gumby, a fascinating yet tragic man with a profound sense of racial pride. He felt driven to compile, collect, and curate the achievements of black Americans into scrapbooks. I had never heard his name before, but he became as important to me as the literary giants whose work I was compelled to re-read.
But Rhodes-Pitts' Harlem is Nowhere is not just another book about Harlem's colorful figures, its glory days, or a meditation on the literary boldface names of the Harlem Renaissance and beyond. Rhodes-Pitts also interviews contemporary Harlem residents -- the ordinary people she encounters on the street and at community meetings. She analyzes messages left by anonymous scribes who write in chalk on the sidewalks of Lenox Avenue. This keeps her narrative rooted in the present -- and kept me from constantly running to my bookshelf.
Still, Harlem's tangled history is always in the background, intoxicating in both its richness and its realities. But by weaving the past and the present together, Rhodes-Pitts reveals, even to those who may have never ventured into Harlem, why it is a place of dreams and why it endures. And most important, she pushes her readers to explore the books and writers that made Harlem such a place of imagination and memory. For a reader like me, it just doesn't get any better.
September 15, 2025
Unique, lovely cultural and literary analysis of Black life in Harlem, published in 2011. I had never heard of this until I read a review of it in Zadie Smith's collection, Feel Free, and I'm glad to have found it.
July 31, 2012
As a teenager growing up in Texas, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts read all of the classic literature about Harlem – books by James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, to name just a few. Harlem fascinated her. She wanted to visit there. She wanted to live there. And in 2002, she got her chance.
When she first moved there, Rhodes-Pitts – a Harvard graduate -- worked as a researcher for a Harlem-based publisher. Somewhere along the line she decided to write her own book, and Harlem is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America is the result.
It reads like part essay, part memoir, and part anthropologic study, and quite fascinating and informative – especially for those who are unfamiliar with the history of Harlem. It’s well-written, full of anecdotes, and generally entertaining, but, unfortunately, it is also sometimes off-putting. There is often a distinct feeling that Rhodes-Pitts is writing from the view of someone who is studying a community of which she is not a member.
Rhodes-Pitts borrowed the title from a 1948 Ralph Ellison essay: Harlem is Nowhere, which reads in part:
. . . Negro Americans are in search for an identity. Rejecting the second-class status assigned them, they feel alienated and their whole lives have become a search for answers to the questions: Who am I, What am I, and Where? Significantly in Harlem the reply to the greeting, “How are you?” is often, “Oh, man, I’m nowhere” – a phrase revealing an attitude so common that it has been reduced to a gesture, a seemingly trivial word.”
Entitling her book Harlem is Nowhere suggests that Rhodes-Pitts believes Harlem is a community still in search of an identity – not accepting the status given to it by others, and looking to define itself. Neither the goal nor the focus of the book is stated or ever made clear, but reading the book it is easy to surmise that Rhodes-Pitts is not just seeking the definition of Harlem – past and present – but also trying to find her own status within that definition.
When someone asks, how long must one live in Harlem in order to write a book about it, Rhodes-Pitts gives no answer. And when she asks an acquaintance if by moving to Harlem she has contributed to the gentrification and is told no – because she’s both black and poor – she leaves dissatisfied with the answer.
After settling into her cramped Harlem apartment she began taking steps to settle within the community. She states there is a pecking order to be followed – make friends with the neighborhood women first, then you can become friendly with the men. To this end she makes the acquaintance of Ms Minnie, and Ms Bessie – a couple of elderly women who live on her block.
Miss Minnie, we find out, hailed from South Carolina, and used to love automobiles treks from her home state to Georgia for a night of dancing with her girlfriends. Miss Bessie was originally from Scotland Neck, NC and told the author of the many letters she wrote home when she first arrived in Harlem.
And once having met the these neighborhood women, Rhodes-Pitss was able to meet some of the men; like Monroe who once lived near a river in Mississippi, and Bing, who insists he knew everything that anyone could ever want to know about Harlem.
Fascinating characters, and if Rhodes had actually interviewed them and wrote their full stories, what a wonderful book Harlem is Nowhere would have been. But you get the feeling Rhodes listened to their stories with as much bemusement as interest. And it is the reader’s loss.
It’s remarkable to note that, while Rhodes is in early thirties, she seemingly makes no attempts to befriend anyone her own age – and the book lacks any of the energy of young Harlem; the music, the fashion, the manner of speaking, and – most importantly – the views. In the one instance when she mentions being in their company it’s after a parade, and police are herding the crowd as if they were cattle – allowing them to move in only one direction while whites had the freedom to move as they want. Rhodes-Pitts becomes indignant, but finds her indignation does nothing to help her escape being identified with the young cows and bulls.
Rhodes spent many days doing research at the Schomburg Museum, and often ventured through the streets of Harlem seeking out some of the places she’d come across in her research. It’s because of this we learn about little-known but colorful characters of Harlem’s past; like L. S. Alexander Gumby, a former butler who, in 1907, became the kept man of a male white benefactor, and started scrapbooks about Negro Americana which are now housed in the Schomburg. And then there was Raven Chanticleer, who started what he called the first wax museum dedicated to famous figures of black history. (The founders of the Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore, however, might dispute this claim.) He was a flamboyant man who said that if upon his death “they” didn’t carry out his wishes for the museum he would “come back and haunt the hell out of them.”
Both made significant contributions to cultural Harlem, and if Rhodes-Pitss had decided to write a book about them and other overlooked figures of Harlem, how delightful this book might have been.
Rhodes-Pitts sprinkles her book with passages from the works of various writers, such as Ellison, Hughes, Claude McKay, and Ann Petrie. And if she’d decided to write a book of colorful excerpts of famous authors – again we would have an appealing book to add to our personal libraries.
But it is perhaps Harlem Nowhere lack of focus that makes it fascinating. You get the feeling that Rhodes-Pitts is searching, but not quite sure herself what she is searching for. Because she’s not sure of the questions, the book lacks any answers.
And so, still – just as the title states – Harlem is Nowhere. To our disappointment, Rhodes-Pitts has not found it. But she has to be commended for looking.
When she first moved there, Rhodes-Pitts – a Harvard graduate -- worked as a researcher for a Harlem-based publisher. Somewhere along the line she decided to write her own book, and Harlem is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America is the result.
It reads like part essay, part memoir, and part anthropologic study, and quite fascinating and informative – especially for those who are unfamiliar with the history of Harlem. It’s well-written, full of anecdotes, and generally entertaining, but, unfortunately, it is also sometimes off-putting. There is often a distinct feeling that Rhodes-Pitts is writing from the view of someone who is studying a community of which she is not a member.
Rhodes-Pitts borrowed the title from a 1948 Ralph Ellison essay: Harlem is Nowhere, which reads in part:
. . . Negro Americans are in search for an identity. Rejecting the second-class status assigned them, they feel alienated and their whole lives have become a search for answers to the questions: Who am I, What am I, and Where? Significantly in Harlem the reply to the greeting, “How are you?” is often, “Oh, man, I’m nowhere” – a phrase revealing an attitude so common that it has been reduced to a gesture, a seemingly trivial word.”
Entitling her book Harlem is Nowhere suggests that Rhodes-Pitts believes Harlem is a community still in search of an identity – not accepting the status given to it by others, and looking to define itself. Neither the goal nor the focus of the book is stated or ever made clear, but reading the book it is easy to surmise that Rhodes-Pitts is not just seeking the definition of Harlem – past and present – but also trying to find her own status within that definition.
When someone asks, how long must one live in Harlem in order to write a book about it, Rhodes-Pitts gives no answer. And when she asks an acquaintance if by moving to Harlem she has contributed to the gentrification and is told no – because she’s both black and poor – she leaves dissatisfied with the answer.
After settling into her cramped Harlem apartment she began taking steps to settle within the community. She states there is a pecking order to be followed – make friends with the neighborhood women first, then you can become friendly with the men. To this end she makes the acquaintance of Ms Minnie, and Ms Bessie – a couple of elderly women who live on her block.
Miss Minnie, we find out, hailed from South Carolina, and used to love automobiles treks from her home state to Georgia for a night of dancing with her girlfriends. Miss Bessie was originally from Scotland Neck, NC and told the author of the many letters she wrote home when she first arrived in Harlem.
And once having met the these neighborhood women, Rhodes-Pitss was able to meet some of the men; like Monroe who once lived near a river in Mississippi, and Bing, who insists he knew everything that anyone could ever want to know about Harlem.
Fascinating characters, and if Rhodes had actually interviewed them and wrote their full stories, what a wonderful book Harlem is Nowhere would have been. But you get the feeling Rhodes listened to their stories with as much bemusement as interest. And it is the reader’s loss.
It’s remarkable to note that, while Rhodes is in early thirties, she seemingly makes no attempts to befriend anyone her own age – and the book lacks any of the energy of young Harlem; the music, the fashion, the manner of speaking, and – most importantly – the views. In the one instance when she mentions being in their company it’s after a parade, and police are herding the crowd as if they were cattle – allowing them to move in only one direction while whites had the freedom to move as they want. Rhodes-Pitts becomes indignant, but finds her indignation does nothing to help her escape being identified with the young cows and bulls.
Rhodes spent many days doing research at the Schomburg Museum, and often ventured through the streets of Harlem seeking out some of the places she’d come across in her research. It’s because of this we learn about little-known but colorful characters of Harlem’s past; like L. S. Alexander Gumby, a former butler who, in 1907, became the kept man of a male white benefactor, and started scrapbooks about Negro Americana which are now housed in the Schomburg. And then there was Raven Chanticleer, who started what he called the first wax museum dedicated to famous figures of black history. (The founders of the Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore, however, might dispute this claim.) He was a flamboyant man who said that if upon his death “they” didn’t carry out his wishes for the museum he would “come back and haunt the hell out of them.”
Both made significant contributions to cultural Harlem, and if Rhodes-Pitss had decided to write a book about them and other overlooked figures of Harlem, how delightful this book might have been.
Rhodes-Pitts sprinkles her book with passages from the works of various writers, such as Ellison, Hughes, Claude McKay, and Ann Petrie. And if she’d decided to write a book of colorful excerpts of famous authors – again we would have an appealing book to add to our personal libraries.
But it is perhaps Harlem Nowhere lack of focus that makes it fascinating. You get the feeling that Rhodes-Pitts is searching, but not quite sure herself what she is searching for. Because she’s not sure of the questions, the book lacks any answers.
And so, still – just as the title states – Harlem is Nowhere. To our disappointment, Rhodes-Pitts has not found it. But she has to be commended for looking.
February 21, 2013
The best part of this book is the way Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts takes us on a journey through her own imagination. An imaginative non-fiction book, did I even think it could be possible? Rhodes-Pitts inserts herself in her book, relating stories of her move to Harlem in the early 2000s and the many impressions she had while living there. She has this unique ability to take small, seemingly minor details about her interactions with people, or things she observes while walking down the street and enlarge them into paragraphs-long musings of what that person really meant by what they said, what the possible history could be behind the shattered stained-glass window, etc. Rhodes-Pitts is great with words, embellishes well and takes the reader down whatever rabbit hole of interest that she chooses.
Rhodes-Pitts digs up little-known stories about little-known people who lived in Harlem. It's obvious that her research was done with care. She always keeps in mind that history is often more myth than truth, which isn't always inherently a bad thing. Also central to the book is the theme of gentrification, displacement and the way in which the community responds to such change and intrusions.
This book isn't necessarily comprehensive. It's not a 101-book on Harlem. Rather, it is more or less a pilgrimmage through it, told poetically and almost improvisationally, weaving together multiple narratives from multiple centuries. What I like about this book is that Rhodes-Pitts makes a point of making sure that the voices of those who ACTUALLY LIVE in Harlem are included, rather than taking a purely detached sociological outsider's view of it. She also obviously has a soft spot in her heart for Harlem, which I think makes the book all the richer.
What more can I say? This was a satisfying read.
Rhodes-Pitts digs up little-known stories about little-known people who lived in Harlem. It's obvious that her research was done with care. She always keeps in mind that history is often more myth than truth, which isn't always inherently a bad thing. Also central to the book is the theme of gentrification, displacement and the way in which the community responds to such change and intrusions.
This book isn't necessarily comprehensive. It's not a 101-book on Harlem. Rather, it is more or less a pilgrimmage through it, told poetically and almost improvisationally, weaving together multiple narratives from multiple centuries. What I like about this book is that Rhodes-Pitts makes a point of making sure that the voices of those who ACTUALLY LIVE in Harlem are included, rather than taking a purely detached sociological outsider's view of it. She also obviously has a soft spot in her heart for Harlem, which I think makes the book all the richer.
What more can I say? This was a satisfying read.
April 3, 2012
I heard Rhodes-Pitts on a panel at the Tennessee Williams Festival and knew, as a fan of creative non-fiction, that I was going to want to read her book (after swearing I would stay out of the book room, having a tall, unread pile tottering next to the bookshelves. The tale of her own journey through Harlem sweeps you through the history of of the place without descending into the desert of marshaled facts and dates, leaving you sad for the slow death by gentrification of the place. Her narrative passes around the famous, well documented points of the Rennaisance like a rushing river around a rock and instead gives the reader a glimpse into Harlem's earliest days and late decline, peopled with fascinating characters (and I do mean characters in the southern, aunt in the attic sense) As dyed-in-the-wool New Orleans exceptionalist, watching the magic of a special place slip away toward the hard reality of her own, contemporary visit is heart-wrenching but you're glad she managed to get into the heart of the neighborhood if only to sit on her stoop with her neighbors and look sadly backwards.
March 16, 2011
What a terrific book!
Ms. Rhodes-Pitts shows us "her" Harlem (she's originally from Texas), with historical digressions into what the neighborhood once was. However, not by highlighting the Cotton Club and other familiar landmarks, but her search for the fates of an African-American wax museum, and a bookstore, noted in its day (before World War II), etc. Gentrification conflict is well-covered, although she doesn't seem to have "bonded" with enough of the incomers to give their stories, just (her) impressions.
One glaring drawback: the book really, really needed a neighborhood map! The author knows where the Avenues are, but even being somewhat familiar with the area, I was lost trying to place the sites she mentioned.
That flaw aside, it's a remarkable narrative. Highly recommended!
Ms. Rhodes-Pitts shows us "her" Harlem (she's originally from Texas), with historical digressions into what the neighborhood once was. However, not by highlighting the Cotton Club and other familiar landmarks, but her search for the fates of an African-American wax museum, and a bookstore, noted in its day (before World War II), etc. Gentrification conflict is well-covered, although she doesn't seem to have "bonded" with enough of the incomers to give their stories, just (her) impressions.
One glaring drawback: the book really, really needed a neighborhood map! The author knows where the Avenues are, but even being somewhat familiar with the area, I was lost trying to place the sites she mentioned.
That flaw aside, it's a remarkable narrative. Highly recommended!
March 20, 2017
Took me a long time to read, but I enjoyed it hugely. Contemplative, meandering, and fascinating exploration of the history and significance of Harlem by a young writer from Texas who moves to the neighbourhood. She acts as a flaneur and observer, noting phrases in old clippings and her neighbours' speech, musing about the rich cultural and political history of the area and the effects of gentrification. It's not organized in any kind of obvious way, but I found it really rich. 4.5 stars.
June 19, 2012
Mostly I loved that the library and archives played such a huge role in the book, as it has played a major role in Harlem's cultural history. I felt like I was the writer, walking around, taking in the neighborhood, keeping it at arms length and simultaneously falling in love.
March 12, 2011
I have visited Harlem only a handful of times since moving to New Jersey in the late summer of 2003. Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, I admittedly harbored an abhorrence for Harlem because of its gritty urban atmosphere. Stumbling on a review of Harlem Is Nowhere on Slate.com, and coupled with an increased desire to become more intimately connected with my African American roots, I decided to buy the book.
Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts writes with an academic tone that was, at first, rather intimidating. I found myself reaching for the dictionary on many occasions, or underlying words to explore in greater depth at a later time. However, as the book began to grow on me, I discovered the extreme inquisitive spirit with which Rhodes-Pitts recalls and retells her experiences in Harlem. The supporting detail she includes about such prominent historical figures as Langston Hughes, Zora Neal Hurston and Arthur Schomburg provide a rich cultural backdrop to her own story.
Harlem Is Nowhere does not follow a linear flow of thought. Instead - and more ideally - Rhodes-Pitts sprinkles details from Harlem's rich history as support for her own experiences; often pausing to provide historical context before proceeding with her story. After the first twenty-five pages, I had become more comfortable with this author's style and begun to appreciate the manner in which she fostered a new appreciation for Harlem, its singular culture, and the people seem to leap from the page.
This book cannot be approached as one would a novel, with the anticipation of being entertained - although Rhodes-Pitts does succeed in weaving a captivating tale of her personal experiences in Harlem - and will definitely require revisiting for further study. However, I have gained a renewed appreciation for Harlem, and look forward to the future visit I have already begun to plan.
Rhodes-Pitts’ book gives the reader much to ponder, long after the last page is turned. An absolute must-read.
Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts writes with an academic tone that was, at first, rather intimidating. I found myself reaching for the dictionary on many occasions, or underlying words to explore in greater depth at a later time. However, as the book began to grow on me, I discovered the extreme inquisitive spirit with which Rhodes-Pitts recalls and retells her experiences in Harlem. The supporting detail she includes about such prominent historical figures as Langston Hughes, Zora Neal Hurston and Arthur Schomburg provide a rich cultural backdrop to her own story.
Harlem Is Nowhere does not follow a linear flow of thought. Instead - and more ideally - Rhodes-Pitts sprinkles details from Harlem's rich history as support for her own experiences; often pausing to provide historical context before proceeding with her story. After the first twenty-five pages, I had become more comfortable with this author's style and begun to appreciate the manner in which she fostered a new appreciation for Harlem, its singular culture, and the people seem to leap from the page.
This book cannot be approached as one would a novel, with the anticipation of being entertained - although Rhodes-Pitts does succeed in weaving a captivating tale of her personal experiences in Harlem - and will definitely require revisiting for further study. However, I have gained a renewed appreciation for Harlem, and look forward to the future visit I have already begun to plan.
Rhodes-Pitts’ book gives the reader much to ponder, long after the last page is turned. An absolute must-read.
October 31, 2013
This meditation on Harlem as place and as dream weaves the author's own experiences moving to Harlem in 2002 with her research on major characters in Harlem's history. I was captivated by the first few chapters: Rhodes-Pitts's writing is gorgeous, and her first discoveries of her neighborhood and her neighbors--thrown into relief by comparison with the fictional arrivals of characters in works by certain Harlem Renaissance writers--had a momentum that pulled me in.
Later, the book's energy petered out a little bit. While Rhodes-Pitts continues to be a good observer, her decision to listen to rather than interview the people she comes across means the depth of engagement is uneven, and her interactions with the city more random.
Still, I will keep an eye on this writer and look forward to the rest of her planned trilogy--a book on Haiti and then one on the Deep South which, as a native Texan, she considers home.
Later, the book's energy petered out a little bit. While Rhodes-Pitts continues to be a good observer, her decision to listen to rather than interview the people she comes across means the depth of engagement is uneven, and her interactions with the city more random.
Still, I will keep an eye on this writer and look forward to the rest of her planned trilogy--a book on Haiti and then one on the Deep South which, as a native Texan, she considers home.
January 27, 2013
It took a really long time to get this book. I am not complaining just stating that fact, which is why it took me so long to write a review.
I was really excited about winning this book and I was so correct!
I have always been fascinated by Harlem since I was a teenager and became aware that Langston Hughes, my favorite poet came from that place.
This book made Harlem feel more concrete and interesting to me. I found it completely compelling, I would however, recommend different cover art.
I think this book was well written and it did hold my attention all the way through.
I was really excited about winning this book and I was so correct!
I have always been fascinated by Harlem since I was a teenager and became aware that Langston Hughes, my favorite poet came from that place.
This book made Harlem feel more concrete and interesting to me. I found it completely compelling, I would however, recommend different cover art.
I think this book was well written and it did hold my attention all the way through.
September 14, 2021
Of special interest to those living in Harlem, both recent transplants and lifelong residents, this book is a series of character sketches of influential Harlemites over the years, a loose history of the neighborhood - how it has changed, and why - and something akin to a memoir, recounting the author's move to Harlem from the south, and how she integrates into the place and interacts with its denizens, while learning about herself and the outsized weight that Harlem has on the Black American identity of times past and present.
My main issue with the book is that the author repeatedly acts too timorous as a journalist, listing the questions she wants to ask to those around her, and the deeper conversations she wishes she could have, yet ultimately she resigns herself primarily to causal, superficial conversations on the street and diligent, yet largely impersonal, combing through public records, instead of doing the kind of reporting that would make the book feel more like an intimate investigation than a dispassionate survey.
My main issue with the book is that the author repeatedly acts too timorous as a journalist, listing the questions she wants to ask to those around her, and the deeper conversations she wishes she could have, yet ultimately she resigns herself primarily to causal, superficial conversations on the street and diligent, yet largely impersonal, combing through public records, instead of doing the kind of reporting that would make the book feel more like an intimate investigation than a dispassionate survey.
August 17, 2017
Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts innovates a tired genre--The Writer in the City. Generally, it goes: writer moves to a famous metropolisis; writer observes defining city rhythms and traits; writer succeeds or fails to transform themselves from outsider tenant to inhabitant , the hostile or welcoming cityscape determines that fate.
I disagree with readers who claim this book is too dense or academic. The book is a gift to readers who desire an un-Disneyfied , Greatest Hits picture of Harlem or of cities.
Unfinished review: Will complete over the weekend
I disagree with readers who claim this book is too dense or academic. The book is a gift to readers who desire an un-Disneyfied , Greatest Hits picture of Harlem or of cities.
Unfinished review: Will complete over the weekend
March 21, 2011
Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, a native Texan who graduated from Harvard in 2000, moved to Harlem two years later to pursue professional opportunities in New York City. In 2004 she wrote an article about her experiences living there, and was encouraged to write this book, which is named after a 1948 essay by Ralph Ellison about the psychological and existential aspects of life in Harlem.
Rhodes-Pitts introduces us to several of her older neighbors, who have experienced the dramatic changes of this now resurgent section of Manhattan that counts Bill Clinton and other whites as new residents. Despite these recent changes, a culture of respect and camaraderie, based on mores of African Americans who migrated to New York from the Jim Crow South decades ago, still exists. We also learn about past residents of Harlem, including familiar ones such as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Marcus Garvey and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and less well known but no less important figures, including George Young, whose bookstore was known as the "Mecca of Literature Pertaining to Colored People", and Victoria Earle Matthews, the founder of the White Rose Home, which aided female emigrants establish a foothold and learn basic skills necessary to survive in a metropolis that existed beyond the imagination of the daughters of slaves and sharecroppers.
The book is divided into thematic chapters, which include the literature of Harlem, the neighborhood as a place of refuge, written signs and messages with overt and hidden meanings, and past and current efforts to keep the neighborhood from becoming gentrified or unduly commercialized.
The book ends with the author's observation of the African American Day Parade in Harlem, which serves as a celebration of life in the neighborhood but also as an account of the tension and stress that exists there, as peaceful residents are caught between hostile city police officers and young men who seek an outlet for their passions and frustrations.
Harlem Is Nowhere does not provide a comprehensive history of the neighborhood, particularly its founding and the story of the people who lived there before the Great Migration of blacks from the South in the early 20th century, and the personal stories are limited to the sections where the author has lived and knows best. Several key aspects of Harlem life are also excluded, most notably key figures in the entertainment industries of jazz and modern dance, and the vibrant nightlife at legendary spots such as the Cotton Club and Minton's Playhouse. However, the book does serve as an appealing and interesting set of observations about the famous and every day people who have influenced and contributed to the life of Harlem over the past century.
Rhodes-Pitts introduces us to several of her older neighbors, who have experienced the dramatic changes of this now resurgent section of Manhattan that counts Bill Clinton and other whites as new residents. Despite these recent changes, a culture of respect and camaraderie, based on mores of African Americans who migrated to New York from the Jim Crow South decades ago, still exists. We also learn about past residents of Harlem, including familiar ones such as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Marcus Garvey and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and less well known but no less important figures, including George Young, whose bookstore was known as the "Mecca of Literature Pertaining to Colored People", and Victoria Earle Matthews, the founder of the White Rose Home, which aided female emigrants establish a foothold and learn basic skills necessary to survive in a metropolis that existed beyond the imagination of the daughters of slaves and sharecroppers.
The book is divided into thematic chapters, which include the literature of Harlem, the neighborhood as a place of refuge, written signs and messages with overt and hidden meanings, and past and current efforts to keep the neighborhood from becoming gentrified or unduly commercialized.
The book ends with the author's observation of the African American Day Parade in Harlem, which serves as a celebration of life in the neighborhood but also as an account of the tension and stress that exists there, as peaceful residents are caught between hostile city police officers and young men who seek an outlet for their passions and frustrations.
Harlem Is Nowhere does not provide a comprehensive history of the neighborhood, particularly its founding and the story of the people who lived there before the Great Migration of blacks from the South in the early 20th century, and the personal stories are limited to the sections where the author has lived and knows best. Several key aspects of Harlem life are also excluded, most notably key figures in the entertainment industries of jazz and modern dance, and the vibrant nightlife at legendary spots such as the Cotton Club and Minton's Playhouse. However, the book does serve as an appealing and interesting set of observations about the famous and every day people who have influenced and contributed to the life of Harlem over the past century.
March 19, 2011
I'm always interested in history, story & fact concerning Harlem so I'm glad I won this through first reads. Though I've been a resident of Harlem since 2006, I live in a less central and certainly more spanish-speaking section of Harlem than the one that Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts focuses on in her book. And that's perfectly ok, because I still recognize a lot of places she describes. The people that hang outside my apartment building could easily be those that hang outside of hers. Perhaps that is more a sign of living in New York City than of living in Harlem, but that's irrelevant to the purpose of the book.
We are taken inside Harlem without chronicling the Apollo or Hotel Theresa (even though the Apollo is the image on the front of the book reminding us that it is the most recognized icon in all of Harlem to non New Yorkers). The book does a good job of highlighting people and places that have been almost forgotten or at least much less celebrated.
However, there were times when I felt like certain anecdotes or profiles were shoved into the book where they didn't belong to ensure that they'd be included. This disrupted the flow of the book and made it feel like it lacked a common thread. I can understand the reasoning behind the final product as it stands, but it seems that it could have been an even better book with either more or less.
One final criticism I have is in regards to the final paragraph or sometimes sentence of each small section. These served to be very serious, clever or powerful observations. The first ten or so were just that. But by the end I found myself half rolling my eyes at this format. In moderation, these would have been wonderful. As they stand, they're a bit heavy-handed.
We are taken inside Harlem without chronicling the Apollo or Hotel Theresa (even though the Apollo is the image on the front of the book reminding us that it is the most recognized icon in all of Harlem to non New Yorkers). The book does a good job of highlighting people and places that have been almost forgotten or at least much less celebrated.
However, there were times when I felt like certain anecdotes or profiles were shoved into the book where they didn't belong to ensure that they'd be included. This disrupted the flow of the book and made it feel like it lacked a common thread. I can understand the reasoning behind the final product as it stands, but it seems that it could have been an even better book with either more or less.
One final criticism I have is in regards to the final paragraph or sometimes sentence of each small section. These served to be very serious, clever or powerful observations. The first ten or so were just that. But by the end I found myself half rolling my eyes at this format. In moderation, these would have been wonderful. As they stand, they're a bit heavy-handed.
December 22, 2010
Harlem is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, Little, Brown, $24.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-316-01723-7
Rhodes-Pitts, an essayist and recipient of the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award, takes as her title a 1948 essay wherein Ralph Ellison describes "nowhere" as the crossroads where personal reality meets the metaphorical meanings attached to people and places. A transplant to Harlem from Texas, Rhodes-Pitts began a personal journey into the iconic neighborhood, poring over Harlem in literature and life, reading its empty lots and street scenes, its billboards and memorials for clues to what it means to inhabit a dream (that fabled sanctuary for Black Americans) and a real place (the all too material neighborhood buckling beneath relentless gentrification). Acutely conscious of the writer's simultaneous role of participant in and recorder of present and past, Rhodes-Pitts weaves a glittering living tapestry of snatches of overheard conversation, sidewalk chalk scribbles, want ads, unspoken social codes, literary analysis, studies of black slang--all if it held together with assurance and erudition. Like Zora Neale Hurston (whose contradictions she nails), she is "tour-guide and interpreter" of a Mecca cherished and feared, a place enduring and threatened that becomes home.
Rhodes-Pitts, an essayist and recipient of the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award, takes as her title a 1948 essay wherein Ralph Ellison describes "nowhere" as the crossroads where personal reality meets the metaphorical meanings attached to people and places. A transplant to Harlem from Texas, Rhodes-Pitts began a personal journey into the iconic neighborhood, poring over Harlem in literature and life, reading its empty lots and street scenes, its billboards and memorials for clues to what it means to inhabit a dream (that fabled sanctuary for Black Americans) and a real place (the all too material neighborhood buckling beneath relentless gentrification). Acutely conscious of the writer's simultaneous role of participant in and recorder of present and past, Rhodes-Pitts weaves a glittering living tapestry of snatches of overheard conversation, sidewalk chalk scribbles, want ads, unspoken social codes, literary analysis, studies of black slang--all if it held together with assurance and erudition. Like Zora Neale Hurston (whose contradictions she nails), she is "tour-guide and interpreter" of a Mecca cherished and feared, a place enduring and threatened that becomes home.
April 2, 2011
Disclosure: I received this book for free through Good Reads First Reads
Harlem is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America was a short history/survey on the history of the inner New York community of Harlem. Through weaving historical facts and figures with beautiful, sometimes poetic language, the author creates an interesting contrast in her book that makes it both informative and descriptive. Her passion for the topic really shines through, and it made the book more endearing to continue reading.
I'm not sure what I expected in the book, but it wasn't what I expected. I thought I would be a bit more informed on the overall history of Harlem, but I found a lot of it was too detailed for what I wanted to know. It seemed more geared towards someone who wants to get into the nitty-gritty of HArmlem history - perhaps Harlemites themselves - and for that person the book would be great.
Would I recommend this book - yes, but not to just anyone. I felt you had to have a genuine interest in the subject matter to fully appreciate the book.
Harlem is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America was a short history/survey on the history of the inner New York community of Harlem. Through weaving historical facts and figures with beautiful, sometimes poetic language, the author creates an interesting contrast in her book that makes it both informative and descriptive. Her passion for the topic really shines through, and it made the book more endearing to continue reading.
I'm not sure what I expected in the book, but it wasn't what I expected. I thought I would be a bit more informed on the overall history of Harlem, but I found a lot of it was too detailed for what I wanted to know. It seemed more geared towards someone who wants to get into the nitty-gritty of HArmlem history - perhaps Harlemites themselves - and for that person the book would be great.
Would I recommend this book - yes, but not to just anyone. I felt you had to have a genuine interest in the subject matter to fully appreciate the book.
March 25, 2011
The author is a first-class noticer (Google credits Saul Bellow with that phrase) and she is an excellent reporter. This book works as a personal
memoir, as political history, as literary history, as current-events reporting, as comparative sociology, as urban archeology--and all without a note of condescension. Remarkably unjudgmental at every turn, but still clear-eyed and seldom blinking. As critic, the author offers only oblique comments, as in referring to the Carnegie branch libraries in Harlem as "philanthropic atonements of the Gilded Age." The cross-fertilization between what she finds in the archives and what she learns from her Harlem neighbors is very productive and often moving and funny too. She's
the perfect participant-observer and a doggedly diligent researcher. I want to read whatever she writes about any place, preferably cities.
There's a reason for the wording of the title, but I wish it could have
been something more inviting, like "Harlem Immersion" maybe?
memoir, as political history, as literary history, as current-events reporting, as comparative sociology, as urban archeology--and all without a note of condescension. Remarkably unjudgmental at every turn, but still clear-eyed and seldom blinking. As critic, the author offers only oblique comments, as in referring to the Carnegie branch libraries in Harlem as "philanthropic atonements of the Gilded Age." The cross-fertilization between what she finds in the archives and what she learns from her Harlem neighbors is very productive and often moving and funny too. She's
the perfect participant-observer and a doggedly diligent researcher. I want to read whatever she writes about any place, preferably cities.
There's a reason for the wording of the title, but I wish it could have
been something more inviting, like "Harlem Immersion" maybe?
July 18, 2011
This is a beautiful, non-traditional narrative about Harlem.
I was annoyed, as a journalist, by the parts of the narrative in which Rhodes-Pitts points out how much of a problem it would be for her to document her interviews like a journalist, but at other points, she's cool referring to herself as a reporter.
I appreciate first-person journalism as much as the next person, but I never quite understood (as beautiful as the writing is) what the organizing principle of this particular narrative was. The story is as valuable as it is meandering.
I was annoyed, as a journalist, by the parts of the narrative in which Rhodes-Pitts points out how much of a problem it would be for her to document her interviews like a journalist, but at other points, she's cool referring to herself as a reporter.
I appreciate first-person journalism as much as the next person, but I never quite understood (as beautiful as the writing is) what the organizing principle of this particular narrative was. The story is as valuable as it is meandering.
May 24, 2014
This book is very interesting. As an African American New Yorker who is obviously familiar with Harlem, this book provides an in depth look at the neighborhood from pre-Great Migration days(when blacks moved from the rural South to the major northern cities) to being the mecca of Black America to the crime, drug ridden days of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and to its economic rebirth, which has caused problems for the long standing black residents who are being forced out due rising residential and commercial properties. A good book about a famous New York City district.
April 21, 2023
While I really learned from Rhodes-Pitts' journalistic meditations on Harlem and its changing landscape, I'm not sure how the memoir-styled sections contributed to the history. Early on she discusses the creative non fiction essays of Baldwin, Ellison and Hughes- at times criticizing and applauding their various approaches to the personal and political. She's doing the same here but with much less authority.
January 31, 2016
Disappointing. Harlem is such an intriguing topic. I was not looking for a "history" of Harlem, but something that explained the soul of the place. For me, this book missed the mark. I can't even tell you parts I liked or disliked; its already out of my mind and I just finished! The reviews I read were decidedly mixed, but the Times had it one Sunday as an Editor's Choice. I wish they hadn't. Skip it.
January 13, 2011
More of a long-form poem than a traditional nonfiction book, it's a lovely meditation on what it means to be in Harlem. Rhodes-Pitts is a sympathetic observer of her surroundings, and manages to encompass a great deal of history, culture and tradition in a short book. I especially enjoyed her interactions with her neighbors because as a New Yorker, I rarely speak with any of mine.
Read
February 16, 2013A real disappointment. Rambled, disjointed. Does not development full descriptions of the people she meets and talks to. Best part is the last chapter where she describes her experience of being caught in the confrontation between teenagers and police after the African American Day parade. Very powerful.
August 26, 2010
This is a really engaging, fascinating portrait of Harlem. Rhodes-Pitts has done an excellent job of unearthing little-known facts about the area and of working to understand the regular people that have populated Harlem throughout the years.
September 18, 2011
a wonderful love letter to harlem. i really enjoyed the way rhodes-pitts went back and forth between her own narrative and a historical account of harlem and its geography, its not-as-well-known, but still infamous, residents, and some of the traditions of living in harlem that still carry on.
October 18, 2014
Can't believe I was arrogant enough to believe I knew even 20% of Harlem's story, current and past before reading this. If I didn't already know that sharing physical spaces and mobility between kinfolk was important, Sharifa would make me a believer.
October 13, 2015
Amazing, deeply moving discussion of one of the most important places in the world and what may well be the quintessential American locale. A fascinating look at this rich, complex community. I especially love the section titled, "Land is the Basis of All Independence," because this is so true.
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