Firstly, I am so grateful to have the opportunity to attend this trip. This tour and the tour guide answered all my childhood questions about the place I grew up in, Harlem. I went to St. Aloysius for elementary school and middle school on 132^nd ST, my grandfather is super for a building on St. Nicholas Avenue near city college and I also have family that lives all over Harlem. So when we were walking it was fulfilling to learn about all the statues and landmarks I had walked past for years but never knew the significance or even the story behind them.

During the tour, we learned most black people who established themselves in Harlem migrated from the south and immigrated from the Caribbean. All these diverse groups of black people welcome to Harlem ready to showcase their talents or ready to get to work so they could either cement their place in “Mecca” or/and help support family back home. On 138^th in front of St. Mark’s Church, Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican political activist, and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) gave his first speech on a stack of crates. He, like other Harlem Renaissance activists, would use the streets of Harlem to spread their message of black nationalism. He specifically spoke about black people reestablishing themselves in Africa, our homeland, so we could be free from white colonial rule. It was interesting to see the exact spot where he stood and gave his initial speeches was down the block from a nursing home my grandmother recently retired from, Greater Harlem.

Then we learned about the history of the Savoy Ballroom, which was located between 140 ST and 141 ST. Although blacks could work in the Cotton Club, they were not allowed to be patrons, so the huge ballrooms of Savoy were where black people would go when the Cotton Club turned them away. The Savoy was among the few racially and culturally integrated clubs that existed during this era. The tour guide told us about Thursdays being “Kitchen Mechanics” night, which was an event where the kitchen staff and cleaning staff of the hotels and restaurants in the city could come together and party. They chose Thursday since that was the night that many domestic workers, who worked all weekend, could enjoy themselves. This crowd would draw African Americans, Caribbeans, Hispanics, and whites under the same roof which would encourage cultural diversity within the community.

Walking down the “Harlem Walk of Fame on 134^th and 135^th ST, learning about Strivers Row and Sugar Hill, which were neighborhoods where prominent black figures Established themselves, and gained a better understanding of Adam Clayton Powell, a Harlem renaissance legend who used his “passing” privilege to make legislative changes in the community. were my favorite parts of this tour. Again, I will cherish this experience and I do look forward to doing more trips like this experience.