HOW TO HONOR AND PROMOTE BLACK ENTERPRISES AND CULTURE IN HARLEM
HOW TO HONOR AND PROMOTE BLACK ENTERPRISES AND CULTURE IN HARLEM
When asked where she brings visitors from out of town in New York City, writer and activist Tenicka Boyd responds, “If you’re visiting me, then you probably like food.” She goes on, “When people are traveling here on their own, they’re going to go to Midtown, they’re doing Times Square.” They might visit Soho or the West Village, but occasionally I like to take them somewhere they might not otherwise go. Boyd, who is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has spent the previous ten years living in New York and is completely enamored with her hometown.HOW TO HONOR AND PROMOTE BLACK ENTERPRISES AND CULTURE IN HARLEM
For the longtime resident, it’s places like Washington Heights and her Harlem neighborhood where the magic happens, from music in St. Nicholas Park and street fairs that seem to pop up all around the city. And for a foodie like Boyd, the city’s restaurants play a big role in what makes it feel like home. She’s particularly enamored of African and African American food options, from Renaissance, her favorite Senegalese spot in Harlem, to classic soul food spots like Melba’s. “I love that New York City is like an African diaspora food hub,” she says, naming The Edge Harlem, Ponty Bistro, and BLVD as other go-tos.
Photo by Jeenah Moon
Another of Boyd’s New York foodie recommendations? Street food. “You can go to street corners and get some of the best food. It just reminds you of all your favorite international cities where that is also possible,” says the frequent traveler. And she describes herself as “a tried-and-true ‘date night at Cecil’s or Red Rooster for dinner and live music’ kind of girl!”
And there’s much more to Harlem beyond food. “Harlem is one of the meccas for Black history and Black fashion,” she says. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a mainstay with its bookstore that’s “effortlessly curated even with trinkets and bowls, and all kinds of things.” She also recommends catching standout local and international acts at the Apollo and keeping an eye out for frequent pop-up galleries. “You can walk around Harlem and absolutely get into anything. That’s the beauty of it.”
For more culture, Boyd also puts iconic places like the Met and the Whitney on her list for “must-do” New York experiences. In fact, it’s the places that she visits again and again that make the city feel like home to Boyd. Though New York is often seen as one of the most innovative cities in the world, few things can compare to the comfort of a local community staple, particularly after enduring a rough few years.
For Boyd it’s this kind of personal interaction that really makes New York special and something she finds more easily in the lesser-frequented corners of Manhattan. As a resident, she feels a bit of a responsibility to make sure these great parts of the city also get explored by visitors. “When they’re visiting the local, someone who lives here,” she says, “I think it’s important to take them to places they wouldn’t necessarily see.”
HOW TO HONOR AND PROMOTE BLACK ENTERPRISES AND CULTURE IN HARLEM
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