Category Archives: Harlem

What if it’s all planned in Heaven?

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What if the time of the demise is not the timing of the oppressed he controlled for so long? Didn’t the young Israelites wandering in the wilderness have a set time to when the wandering would be over? 

What if its all the timing of the Heavens?

At the same time of the great turmoil, great grief, great upheaval and great relief, there is a great God who is present.

There is a time for everything, says the prophet in Ecclesiastes.

How the uprising was planned. How  victory is spanned out across all the peoples of the earth is all part of how things are planned in heaven. 

The King had no idea of David’s plan to take down Goliath. He gave him the blueprint often used. However, this weighed David down. WIth great spontaneity, David removed that cloke of the past and met that giant with five smooth stones. He lifted his voice and said with emotions still felt today, “I come to you in the name of the Lord!” His words, actions and behavior opened up away for what was already planned in heaven: He would be king someday. 

We study the structure. We study the movement. We mourn our loss and we clench our fist upon our victories. But, what if none of these structures can be replicated by the young today? 

You had to be there, the elderly tell us, for you to have a truly understanding of Harlem in the 1960s, you had to be there. Even for us, you weren’t a part of the revolution until you were working in the revolution. Your presence was needed. The movement cannot be repeated.

We are now living at a different time that calls for new organizing and new organizers.

Read the past. Yes.

Learn the past. Yes.

But know your contribution, your calling, your now is a little higher than that of the past. 

It’s all planned in Heaven.

My thoughts after reading some of This is an Uprising by Mark Engler and Paul Engler for Professor Fort’s class, Topics in Black History: The Freedom School

Image take at Brooklyn Museum in 2025 at the Elizabeth Catlett’s show, A Black Revolutionary Artist and All that it Implies

Towards 1-2-5

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I walked by this Monsieur twice. Going and coming.

When I asked him if I could photograph him he asked

Parlez-vous francais?

I was a bit shocked that he didn’t speak English. The little bit of French that I learned in college did not come in handy. I forgot everything.

I should have said, Puis-je prendre votre photo? but I pointed at his clothes and used the word photo instead of picture.

Ahhh, oui, oui.

merci beaucoup!

Roy DeCarava

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Sherry Turner DeCarava

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Book Signing

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Book Signing

 

Did you ever meet someone you clicked with right before moving on to another dimension in life?

This is what happened to me before I graduated Fordham. I met wonderful artist and professors at the other campus- Lincoln Center. I met my mentor, who still mentors me and Joe who never fails to invite me to the dark room.

I also met a lot of my ancestors and professional artist through them.

Somehow, I’ve stayed in contact with them and them with me.

Back in October of last year, Casey texted me to check out Roy DeCarava at Zwirner and I told her I’ll go.

I arrived the last day and it was packed. I ran into Terrance and  met some of his buddies. I was told Mrs. DeCarava was there- which it was a honor to meet her and while standing in line, I was excited to see my Professor, Joe.

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At the Zwirner viewing Roy DeCarava, ran into Joe!

Somehow I learned about photographer, Roy DeCarava, a month before he died. It was really awkward. I was in the computer lab looking for someone to write about and his story stood out to me. I remember typing his name into google to see if he was still alive and he had just died a month before, that October. Well, he’s another legend I can’t meet I remember thinking. Just like Gordon Parks.

DeCarava was born in 1919, in New York where he lived and started his career.  He came from a single parent home. His mother migrated from Jamaica and placed her son into the programs in the neighborhood. He was a first black in some areas, like the first to integrate the New York City Textile High School and the first to win the Guggenheim Fellowship.

Gordon Parks was and still is my favorite photographer but what I enjoyed when reading  about DeCarava was how real and close to home his struggle was. Firstly, he grew up in New York and experienced segregation. New York isn’t in the south! However, he was the first to integrate his high school! His story speaks to the real New York and how it is- even now!

Secondly, in the late 1940’s, his subject was Harlem. And, he showed Harlem as he saw it. His work is raw and gritty. As he said, ‘[I aimed for] a creative expression, the kind of penetration insight and understanding of Negroes which I believe only a Negro photographer can interpret.” Looking at his images, you are drawn into a world of segregated Harlem, where only Blacks dwelt. A Harlem where children are happy despite poverty and adults are struggling to create a better life.

His photo titled ‘Graduation’ shows a young girl in a white dress surrounded by rubbish. It shows the fluidness of the life his subjects were living; the ability to switch into wanting to live the American dream and at the same time seeing the reality of living as a black person in America.

Needless to say, I was very grateful that day to run into his wife, Sherry Turner DeCarava. I may not have met Roy DeCarava but it was a blessing to meet someone who worked along side of him. And it just so happens that not only did I meet his wife but I learned that my professor, Joe, also worked with Mr. DeCarava.