With roots in Georgia, Oklahoma and Grenada within the Caribbean, human rights advocate Malcolm X spanned the globe to turn into a vocal supporter of Black social and political consciousness and a famend defender of worldwide human rights. Nonetheless, higher Manhattan was the place the Black chief got here to prominence and his superb journey is frequently remembered by a strolling tour entitled “Malcolm X’s Harlem: Witnessing the Autobiography.”
One of many choices of the New York Narratives strolling tour firm and storytelling challenge, the roughly three-hour, two-mile-long tour makes use of “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” as a information to look at the ups and downs of Malcolm’s a long time in Harlem. The late Black chief’s private Harlem story incorporates a miraculous evolution — from a younger man enthralled with uptown’s pleasure-seeking quick life to an internationally revered chief who rivaled the status of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and different outstanding Black leaders of the day.
Brooklyn-born Asad Dandia, New York Narratives’ founder and the tour information, is growing particular plans for the one hundredth anniversary of Malcolm’s beginning in Oklahoma on Could 19. “Because of the demand, I might have several [tours] that week,” along with different actions, he stated.
Dandia, who can be a group historian and a museum educator on the Museum of the Metropolis of New York, stated Malcolm’s Harlem tour was birthed after the pandemic, created after he revisited the late chief’s best-selling autobiography.
“I’m a born and raised New Yorker. I first read the autobiography in high school. I’m a Muslim, come from a Muslim background, and we look to Malcolm as a great source of inspiration,” he stated recalling being “deeply” moved by Malcolm’s “social transformation.”
The tour idea developed simply for Dandia, realizing that within the 1965 as-told-to autobiography (written with creator Alex Haley) Malcolm was “very specific and vivid in the way he describes the streets of Harlem, and the streets of New York” — talking of Harlem YMCA on the W. one hundred and thirty fifth St. the place he stayed as younger grownup, the then-popular Small’s Paradise nightclub the place he labored, and the location of the Nation of Islam’s outdated Mosque No. 7 the place he later grew to become the top minister.
“Malcolm is your tour guide!” stated Dandia.
One other of the tour’s many stops is a hair salon on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. “that used to be the headquarters of [Black leader Marcus] Garvey’s UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association),” Dandia stated.
Malcolm’s Georgia-born father and Grenada-born mom’s loyalty to the Garvey group is famous at this location. Different sights assist put the eventful Civil Rights Motion of the Fifties and Sixties in perspective by referencing influential historic figures and areas in Harlem.
African Diaspora Movie Fest
Emmy Award-winning director Stanley Nelson’s “San Juan Hill: Manhattan’s Lost Neighborhood,” is being screened March 2 at 6:30 p.m. as a part of the African Diaspora Worldwide Movie Pageant’s Black Historical past Month 2025 Movie Sequence at Columbia College’s Lecturers School, 525 W. a hundred and twentieth St., from Feb. 28 by March 2. The documentary tells of the massive and vibrant San Juan Hill group of Black, Caribbean and Puerto Rican residents. Go to the African Diaspora Worldwide Movie Pageant web site for a full schedule of screening and actions.
Episcopal Church
Absalom Jones, the primary Black priest ordained within the Episcopal Church. (Episcopal Church)Black priest honored
The pioneering Rev. Absalom Jones — a history-making reverend, abolitionist and the primary Black priest ordained within the Episcopal Church — was acknowledged on the “Blessed Absalom Jones Celebration” held on the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine on Feb. 8 by the Episcopal Diocese of New York. with spiritual companies and musical performances.
Born in Philadelphia, Jones in 1802 grew to become the primary Black priest ordained within the Episcopal Church. The celebrant for the occasion was the Rt. Rev. Matthew F. Heyd, Bishop of Episcopal Diocese of New York. The Rev. Dr. Mark Francisco Bozzuti-Jones, priest and director for Religious Formation at Trinity Retreat Middle and creator of the youngsters’s e book, “Absalom Jones: America’s First Black Priest,” was the occasion’s preacher.
The occasion additionally included Grammy-nominated jazz and blues singer Antoinette Montague, Tony Award-winning pianist Danny Mixon, and the Absalom Jones Pageant Refrain, whose members come from parishes all through the Diocese.
