Harlem
The center of Black American culture for a century — the Apollo, the Studio Museum, brownstone blocks, serious food, and a free two-week festival every August.
- What it costs
- Free to walk. HARLEM WEEK in August is largely free. Venues and food are separately priced.
- Best in
- Any season
- Where
- 125th Street, New York, NY 10027
- Official site
- harlemweek.com
The essentials
- The Apollo Theater on 125th Street. Amateur Night on Wednesdays is the real thing and has been running since 1934 — Ella Fitzgerald, James Brown and Lauryn Hill all came through it. Cheap, loud, and the audience is half the show.
- The Studio Museum in Harlem, dedicated to artists of African descent, which has been a launchpad for a generation of major American artists.
- The Schomburg Center on Malcolm X Boulevard — a research library and exhibition space holding one of the world's great archives of Black history. Free.
- Strivers' Row (West 138th and 139th) — two blocks of 1890s townhouses, among the finest residential architecture in Manhattan.
HARLEM WEEK
Despite the name it runs for roughly the first half of August and stages more than a hundred events — the Percy Sutton Harlem 5K, outdoor music, a huge Harlem Day street festival, fashion, film and family programming.
Most of it is free and outdoors. It is one of the largest celebrations of Black and Latino culture anywhere and it is the single best time of year to be in the neighborhood.
Eating, and going to church
Harlem's food runs from long-standing soul food institutions to West African restaurants along 116th Street to a strong newer restaurant scene. Eat on the side streets rather than the main drag.
On gospel services: many Harlem churches welcome visitors, and some are overwhelmed with them. If you go, go for the whole service, not for twenty minutes of the music; dress properly; don't photograph; and prefer a smaller church over the one on the bus-tour itinerary. It is a religious service, not a show.
Getting there
The 2 or 3 to 125th Street for the center of it, or the A, B, C or D to 125th Street on the west side. About 20 minutes from Midtown on an express.
The 4, 5 or 6 to 125th Street serves East Harlem.
Metro-North stops at Harlem–125th Street, ten minutes from Grand Central, which most people don't realize.
Getting around once you're there
125th Street is flat with wide sidewalks. 125th Street on the A/B/C/D is accessible; the 2/3 station is not. The brownstone side streets have stoops but the sidewalks are level.