One Block, Four Hours, Many Special Moments
Sometimes a Greeter and visitor explore multiple neighborhoods or even multiple boroughs during their few hours together, but Leigh Hallingby’s Greet with Petra Schulz from Cologne, Germany, proved that, sometimes, just one street can provide enough special moments.
In early July Petra came to New York City for the third time, but it was her first time with a Greeter, and she wanted to see things she might miss on her own.
The Greet started at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture on Lenox Avenue (also called Malcolm X Boulevard) at 135th Street in Harlem. This branch of the New York Public Library houses an archive of materials related to the African diaspora and the African-American experience. The library was named for Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, a Puerto Rican historian, writer, and activist whose collection of art, literature, and other items related to African history were purchased to become the basis of the Schomburg collection.
In addition to the research collection, the Schomburg offers exhibits, lectures, and performances. In a room just beyond the library entrance, Leigh and Petra viewed Rivers, sculptor Houston Conwill’s terrazzo and brass floor design. The piece is an homage to Langston Hughes’ poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” and includes visual elements from Yoruba, Haitian, and Christian traditions. An urn containing Hughes’ ashes is buried within Rivers.
After admiring the façade of the original 135th Street Library, now part of the Schomburg, and a neighboring block of early 20th-century apartment buildings, Petra and Leigh headed west along 135th Street.
The Harlem Walk of Fame presents a series of brass plaques embedded in the sidewalk in honor of important members of the Black community in New York. Honorees include former NYC Mayor David Dinkins, musicians Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, and civil rights leader Malcolm X. Further along 135th Street, Leigh gave Petra background on the rich history of the Harlem YMCA, which was founded primarily for use by African-American men at a time when most YMCAs were restricted to Whites. In addition to Malcolm X, writer Claude McKay and other artists active in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s lived at the Y.
Crossing the street one block west of the YMCA brought Petra and Leigh to a small parking lot with murals honoring jazz trumpeter and composer Dizzy Gillespie.
Gillespie was an anti-war and civil rights activist, and in the 1960s he became a Bahá’i, drawn by the faith’s emphasis on the oneness of humanity and elimination of racism. One of the Harlem murals shows Gillespie with Iranian schoolchildren—the Bahá’i faith began in Iran—along with the hashtag #educationisnotacrime, in recognition of Gillespie’s commitment to equal educational opportunity for all.
Petra spotted a police station across from the murals and asked if they could pay a quick visit. A police officer in Cologne, Petra had brought an embroidered police badge of her own that she hoped to exchange for an NYPD badge.
Leigh and Petra were welcomed at the 32nd Precinct and were referred to Officer Denton from the Community Affairs Bureau.
When he learned of Petra’s request, he excused himself for a few minutes and returned with an old jacket of his own, scissors, and a box cutter. As they sat together, he removed not only two NYPD patches, but three stripes honoring his years on the force—one stripe for every five years. Denton said that his current jacket has four stripes; he and Petra are both 20-year veterans of the police.
It was hard to top the experience with Officer Denton at “the 3-2,” but there was more to see in Central Harlem. Highlights of the walk included Strivers’ Row, landmarked blocks of row houses that have been home to artists, actors, and musicians as diverse as WC Handy, Eubie Blake, Bob Dylan, and Tupac.
Leigh showed Petra the Abyssinian Baptist Church, founded in a different location in the early 1800s by Ethiopian sailors protesting segregated seating in other congregations. Then it was back to 135th Street to admire the murals on the outside of the Harlem Hospital Center, across Lenox Avenue from the Schomburg.