Harlem Is Nowhere
A Journey to the Mecca of Black America

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 pr......more

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......more

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 throug......more

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.......more

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 i......more