Harlem and a Glimpse of Morningside Heights

First stop of the day was off the 6 train to the Museum of The city of New York. The main point of our visit was to watch a short flim on the history of New York and how it progressed over time. I liked how this specific class fell on this day because while watching the film there were some stuff we learned about that they talked about in the movie such as the Worlds fair and Robert Moses "The master builder". Watching the movie was uninteresting at first but when you start hearing things that you actually learned about  the film then grabs your attention allowing you to hear other information. The movie lasted about 20 minutes then we went to view some artwork around the museum. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRTtJsMGT7M

Next, we headed over to Justo Bontanica a store owned by Jose Vargas. This store was filled with herbs and spirituality believed items that supposedly gets rid of anything one would consider bad in their life. Jose mentioned that he has been around for a very long time and almost everyone in the neighborhood comes into that shop on a regular basis. However due to increase in rent he must move to another spot which is not to far but you could tell by his face that he was sad about moving. He explained how everything in his store works for different purposes and nothing was a lie. His store was interesting but I did not enjoy it. I do not believe in other items getting rid of your problems and did not feel comfortable in the store which is why I left once Jose was done speaking. However, many classmates of mine did purchase some items and obtained the meaning behind what they purchased.

 

Next we walked the streets of Harlem and I was really fascinated by the paintings we seen on the street walls.

Most of these paintings were done by an Artist named Manny Vega and fortunately and accidentally we bumped into Manny Vega. Although it was our first day learning about him when I met him I was so shocked as if I've been hearing about him forever. He was a really nice guy and he explained his purpose for doing all his artwork on the street walls. He stated that he enjoys doing all this and the reason he put it on the wall is because once it is on the wall the painting then belongs to the "people" and they get to decide what the artwork means to them.
After that exciting experience we all parted ways for lunch a couple of  us headed to a Spanish restaurant I ordered a plate of white rice, brown bean sauce, chicken and plantains which is nothing new to me because I eat that on a regular. Spanish food is really similar to Haitian food which is my culture the only difference is certain spices that is used.

We then headed over to Central Park and walked through it and met with our tour guide that showed us many landmarks of Harlem and gave us an overall history about it. He talked about some really interesting things that I never knew. First he showed us the building that holds former President Bill Clinton's office which I was glad I found out. It just shows how much Bill Clinton is so involved in African American Community even when he was President in the United States. Next, he talked about the Apollo theater, the theatre that was once only for "whites when the neighborhood was white and largley German Jewish" (B.G. pg.440). Once the neighborhood changed culturally so did the theater many artists got their success started here, artists such "Stevie Wonder and Billie Holliday" (B.G. p 440) and of course many others. Could their success  be contributed to the help of the "lucky tree"? Of course not but their was a routine for all performers to rub a tree bark that was placed in the Apollo theartre which was a sign of good luck. We then walked down to see some brownstone buildings and all these years I drove by those building I never knew they were expensive to live in becasue they do not seem that nice to me. The tour guide explained how one building held one whole German family not like now when it is one family per floor.
As we walked down we saw a television crew casting a t.v show and learned that the producers rent out people's apartment buildings to produce their show.

Our last stop with the tour guide was visiting the Harriet Tubman statue, what really interested was the placement of the statue over a subway station. I thought that was really interesting.

Our last trip of the day was walking up the longest flight of steps I have ever walked on the ended us up in Morning side Heights. I must admit I really felt a burn after walking up those flights. Fortunately, Mike and Meritta had some sympathy for us and ended our day there. They must of saw the tiredness on our face after the mission.
Overall,today was a good day. The most interesting part to me was learning about the history of Harlem. I attended church in Harlem from birth till age 14 and did not know anything historical about this town.