2016 When Sugar Hill Was Sweet Program Booklet

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About While We Are
Still Here
Mission
While We Are Still Here (WWSH) ensures
that the “post-gentrification” community of
Harlem and beyond will honor and find a
meaningful connection to the legacy of African
American achievement, and its paramount
importance to world culture.
Vision
Will educate, enshrine, and preserve the extraordinary
legacy of two historical landmark
buildings that were vital to the intellectual, cultural,
social, and political advancements of the
Harlem community and the African Diaspora.
Objective
To create lasting tributes to the movers and
shakers of Edgecombe Avenue and beyond
by erecting, publishing, and presenting: a
monument, a book, and a series of public
events; and to also collect and chronicle an oral
history
Founder and Executive Director
Karen D. Taylor
Board of Directors (
Institutions listed for affiliations only)
June Watson Benjamin, Board Secretary; Union
leader, UAW International
Yvonne Dennis Wakim, Author; Native American
Rights Activist
Marline Martin, Board Treasurer; Executive Director,
LeRoy Neiman Arts Center
Henry L. McCurtis, MD, Private practitioner
Stephanie Renee Payne, Board President; Professor,
Temple University; Life coach; Author
Paulette J. Tabb, Educator, NYC Department of
Education
Karen D. Taylor
Steering Committee Members
Herb Boyd, Scholar-Historian-In-Residence;
Professor, CUNY; Author; Journalist; Activist
Monica L. Gray, Conference and Event Planning Director
National Urban League; National Minority Suppliers
Development
Joseph Harris, MD, Member, Doctors without Borders
Stephen Robinson, MD, MPH, Private Practitioner
Cheryl Scott, MD, MPH, Private Practitioner
Judith Stafford, In Memoriam
Board of Advisors
Alexa Birdsong, Co-founder, Jazz at Lincoln Center
Marie Brown, Literary Agent, Marie Brown Associates
Carmen Cruz, Curator
Professor Jamal Joseph,
Columbia University
Professor Rosemari Mealy,
City University of New York
Professor Mark Naison,
Fordham University
Vera E. Sims, Educator,
NYC Department of Education
Professor Emeritus Michael Thelwell, W.E.B.
Du Bois Afro-American Studies Department, Amherst College
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…heritage in all its forms must be preserved, enhanced, and handed on to future generations as a record of human experience
and aspirations, so as to foster creativity in all its diversity and to inspire genuine dialogue among cultures...
—From the United Nation’s “Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity and Creativity,” Article 7
Cover photos: top row (l-r) Melba Joyce, Shirley Graham-Du Bois; middle row (l-r) DJ Red Alert, Thurgood
Marshall, Angela L. Owens, Count Basie; bottom row (l-r) Mamie and Kenneth Clark, Stephanie St. Clair,
DJ Laylo, Leroy Burgess

A Centennial Celebration of 409 and 555 Edgecombe Avenue
Presented By While We Are Still Here
Schedule of Events
JULY
AUGUST
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Saturday, July 30 10:00-12:00
Three Sisters and Their Parents:
Discussion and Walking Tour
Meet in front of 800 Riverside
Drive
Tour Leader, Michael Henry Adams
The common architectural histories of
409 and 555 Edgecombe Avenue and
800 Riverside Drive are highlighted in
this discussion and walking tour. Also
covered will be the history of Black
ownership of these important structures.
Saturday, July 30 12:30-2:00
Judicial Firsts, Judicial Influence:
Jurists in the House
Meet in front of 409 Edgecombe
Avenue
Panelists, Esmeralda Simmons,
Esq., Jerry Vattamala, Esq., Elizabeth
Yeampierre, Esq.
Moderator, Joan P. Gibbs, Esq.
This important panel about the legal
legacies of 409 Edgecombe Avenue,
including Thurgood Marshall’s, takes
place right in the Harlem community, in
front of the building that housed some
of the nation’s and city’s most significant
legal movers and shakers—all of whom,
during the 20th century, shaped the legal
landscape of the United States.
Leroy Burgess
Friday, August 19, 5:00-8:00
Leroy Burgess Birthday Dance Party
with DJ Red Alert and DJ Laylo
Jackie Robinson Park Bandshell,
145th Street between Edgecombe
and Bradhurst Avenues
There’s a chance that Leroy had
something to do with your favorite disco
tune or house music jam. As writer,
producer, arranger, keyboardist, and/or
vocalist, his special touch can be felt on
hits like “Mainline,” “Let’s Do It,” and
“Moment of My Life.”
SEPTEMBER
Saturday, September 3, 12:00-6:00
Echoes of the Eras: Music From 409
and 555 Edgecombe—Concert and
Panel Discussion (European classical
music co-producers, Cedric Cannon and
La-Rose Saxon)
Jazz, Spirituals, European Classical
Featuring a SPECIAL GUEST
PERFORMER who will be announced

on our website and elsewhere—check
www.wwsh.nyc on August 8th!
We’ll Be Closing Out the Day With
A Jam Session!
media partner
Terrance McKnight
Melba Joyce
The Sugar Hill Quartet
The West Village Quartet
Angela L. Owens (soprano) and
Charles David Carter (bassbaritone)—operatic
duo, with
accompaniment by Roy Jennings
Emcee, Daa’iya Lomax of WHCR’s
“Gardens of Tranquility and
Contemplation”
Friday, September 16
9:30am-8:30pm
A Day of Panel Discussions and
Performances at Barnard College*
Milbank Hall, Krueger Lecture Hall
Room 405
Daddy Grace
Of the Cloth: Theologians, Ministers,
and Christian Capitalists
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Melba Joyce
Panelists, Herb Boyd, Terrance
McKnight
Moderator, Felipe Luciano
Many musical innovators called 409
and 555 Edgecombe home: From
Andy Kirk, Jimmie Lunceford, Billy
Strayhorn, Coleman Hawkins, Johnny
Hodges, and Count Basie, through Paul
Robeson, travel the journey with us all
the way through to the era of Cassandra
Wilson. Will also present European
classical music and the contributions
of Henry T. Burleigh and Clarence
Cameron White.
Panelists, Stephen Robinson, MD,
William Seraile, PhD
Moderator, Reverend LaKeesha
Walrond,PhD
From Daddy Grace’s enormous property
holdings, including ownership of 555
Edgecombe Avenue, to the Reverend
James Herman Robinson’s prototype for
an international-aid organization that
grew into the Peace Corps, the influence
of a few of Sugar Hill’s African-American
ministers will be revealed. This talk will
give an overview of the role religion
played in the activism and activities of the
men of the cloth, who lived at 409 and
555, or who owned the dwellings.
*Columbia University—Barnard College, Africana Studies
Department; Institute for Research on Women, Gender,
and Sexuality; and the Heyman Center for Humanities
(co-sponsors)

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Saying Something: Voices of 409 and
555 Edgecombe Avenue
Directed by Barbara Montgomery
With actors from the Harlem
community
If one can describe a building as
“prolific,” then it is probable that
409 and 555 may well be two of the
most prolific residences in the modern
world. Dramatic interpretations of
excerpted works by or about the intrepid
Edgecombe Avenue writers, poets,
playwrights, and thinkers.
Pride and Harlem History
Panelists, Rich Blint, PhD, David
Hajdu, Gordon Thompson, PhD
Moderator, TBD
Billy Strayhorn
was one of the
brave. He was gay
and out, during
an era that was far
more unforgiving
Billy Strayhorn
of homosexuality
than the current
period. This panel
will present the gay community’s major
influence on the arts and letters of the
African Diaspora.
The “Talented Tenth” and the “Ninety
Percent” On Edgecombe Avenue: The
Power of Community, The Realities of
Dissension
Louise
Thompson-Patterson
Panelists, Jelani Cobb,
PhD, David Levering
Lewis, PhD, Mark
Naison, PhD
Moderator, Herb
Boyd
Describes the broad,
diverse political
tendencies, from
stalwart Communists, such as Marvel
Cooke, to “integrationists” to nationalists,
to anti-Communists. The influence and
importance of Du Bois (William Edward
Burghardt and Shirley Graham), Patterson
(William and Louise Thompson), as well
as Robeson (Paul and Eslanda), will be
part of a comprehensive discussion.
Closing Performance and Reception
For the Love of Sweet Pea, Rudel Drears,
pianist
Thursday, September, 22, 2016
6:30-8:30
Schomburg Center for Research In
Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Boulevard
DOUBLE JEOPARDY: A WOMAN’S WORK IS
NEVER DONE
Panelists,
Rosemari Mealy,
Ph.D. and others
TBA
Moderator, Tina
Campt, Ph.D.
This engaging
discussion will
Mamie Clarke
encapsulate the
dynamic women
of 409 and 555 Edgecombe. These
influential personages include Shirley
Graham Du Bois, Dr. Mamie Phipps
Clarke, Louise Thompson-Patterson,
and Eslanda Goode Robeson.
October
For a Better Life? The Caribbean
Presence in Harlem
Site and Date TBA
Panelists, Marta Moreno Vega, PhD
and others TBA
Moderator, TBA

In the early
twentieth
century,
mirroring the
Great Migration
from the
American south,
people from
the Caribbean
Claudia Jones islands migrated
to Harlem
and left an indelible imprint. Panelists
will discuss this population shift and
its effect on the cultural and political
output of Black America, as well as the
significance of figures that included
Marcus Garvey, Hubert Harrison,
Carlos Cooks, Claudia Jones, and
Claude McKay.
November
The Harrises of Harlem: A Photography
and Art Exhibit—The Mildred Harris
Jackson Collection
Leroy Neiman Arts Center
2785 Frederick Douglass Boulevard
November 8-23
Friday, November 11,
Opening Reception
Mildred Harris Jackson was born in
Darlington, South Carolina and raised
in Harlem. She is ninety years old. At
the age of
ten, her
father, Eddy
Early Harris,
bought her
a Kodak
box camera,
which she
The Harris Children 1927
still has.
She began to capture her family and
the streets of the “Black Capital of
the World” through the camera’s lens.
During the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, she
took hundreds of photos that are an
important documentation of the social
history of Harlem, including events at
the famed Savoy Ballroom, her sister’s
wedding at Mt Olivet Baptist Church,
and family outings in Central Park.
“The Harrises of Harlem” draws from
her archive, which also includes a James
Vanderzee portrait of her baby brother.
Ms. Jackson has photographs of seven
generations of her family, including her
great grandfather, who was born during
the slavery era. Her great grandmother,
Amanda Jackson, was a slave who had
the unusual honor of having an ornate
headstone, which was photographed by
another family member.
A retired educator, Ms. Jackson is also a
painter, and some of her works will be
presented in this show.
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Presenter and Performer Biographies
Michael Henry Adams was born in Akron, Ohio. He is a writer, lecturer,
historian, tour guide, and activist, living in Harlem. A fine arts graduate of the
University of Akron, Michael trained in Columbia University’s graduate historic
preservation program, and studied English country houses at the Attingham
Summer School. His books include Harlem, Lost and Found; An Architectural and Social
History, 1765-1915. Currently he’s at work on the forthcoming, Homo Harlem, A
Chronicle of Lesbian and Gay Life in the African-American Cultural Capital, 1915-1995.

Tia Allen, violist, has performed at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and the Teatro
Nacional in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. As a freelance artist in New York
City, she has performed with Cee-Lo and Nikki Jean on the Late Night Show with
David Letterman. She is a six-summer veteran of the Aspen Music Festival and
school, where she performed Souvenir de Florence with Julia Fisher, in the Benedict
Music Tent. She has also performed at festivals in Graz, Austria and Nice, France.
Tia attended the University of Cincinnati College of Music, where she received her
bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music, graduating magna cum laude.
Rich Blint is associate director of the Columbia University School of the Arts’
Office of Community Outreach and Education. Prior to joining Columbia, Rich
held positions at New York University’s Institute of African-American Affairs; and
the Center for Labor, Community, and Policy Studies at the Murphy Institute. He
holds a BA in English and Honors from Hunter College, the City University of New
York; and earned his PhD in the Program in American Studies at NYU. A frequent
interlocutor with artists across the genres, Rich is research affiliate and adjunct
assistant professor in the Masters Program in African-American Studies at Columbia
and has taught courses and guest lectured at Hunter College, Vassar College, and
NYU.
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Herb Boyd is a professor, journalist, and author, who has written or edited twentytwo
books, including, Three Centuries of African American History as Told by Those Whole
Lived It (oral histories); Civil Rights: Yesterday and Today; Baldwin’s Harlem, a biography of
James Baldwin (finalist for NAACP Image Award); Brotherman—The Odyssey of Black
Men in America, An Anthology (with Robert Allen, received American Book Award); We
Shall Overcome (used in classrooms internationally); Autobiography of a People; and The
Harlem Reader. He has scripted several documentaries on cold cases of martyrs from
the Civil Rights era.
Leroy Burgess is a vocalist, songwriter, arranger, and keyboardist, who is also
known as the “Father of the Boogie.” Born and raised in Harlem, Leroy came into
prominence as the lead singer of Black Ivory. He is steeped in the traditions of
various manifestations of Black Music, from jazz to gospel, and received part of his
musical education at the City College of New York with the likes of Herbie Jones, a
colleague of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. Leroy’s music has been recorded
by Bobbi Humphrey, Rick James, and many other prominent artists.
David Caines Burnett is a Harlem-born violinist and violist of Antiguan and
Kittitian parents. He began violin lessons with Galina Heifetz at the Third Street
Music School Settlement, while a student at LaGuardia’s High School of Music
and Art. David continued his studies at Oberlin Conservatory and the Boston
Conservatory. He has performed with virtuoso violinist, Liana Iskadadze, at
Carnegie Hall. Other performances include the Harlem Chamber Players and the
New York Housing Authority Orchestra. His vast teaching experience includes the
Harlem School of the Arts, the Langston Hughes Middle School, and Juilliard’s
MAP Program.

Tina Campt is Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Africana and Women’s Gender
and Studies, director of the Barnard Center for Research on Women, and chair of
the Africana Studies Department at Barnard. Tina joined the Barnard faculty in
2010, prior to which she held faculty positions at Duke University, the University of
California-Santa Cruz and the Technical University of Berlin. Her published work
explores gender, racial, and diasporic formation in Black communities in Germany
and, more broadly, in Europe. She is the author of two books: Other Germans:
Black Germans and the Politics of Race, Gender and Memory in the Third Reich
and Image Matters: Archive, Photography and the African Diaspora in Europe. She
holds a PhD and MA in History, from Cornell University; and a BA in History from
Vassar College.
Charles David Carter is a bass-baritone, who has performed on both concert and
operatic stages throughout the U.S. and abroad. He recently appeared in the Lyric
Opera of Chicago’s critically acclaimed production of Showboat. Other performances
of note include appearances with Jessye Norman at Carnegie Hall for a presentation
of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Works and the Emmy-nominated broadcast of Porgy and
Bess, Live from Lincoln Center, conducted by John DeMain. He has performed the
roles of “Scarpia” in Puccini’s Tosca and “Figaro” in Mozart’s The Marriage of
Figaro. A graduate of the Harlem School for the Arts, Charles continued his musical
education at Morgan State University. He was influenced by his mother who was a
classically trained mezzo. He aspires to continue in traditions set before him, using
his talents to promote cultural awareness.
Jelani Cobb is an associate professor of History. He is a recipient of fellowships
from the Fulbright and Ford Foundations. His forthcoming book is titled Antidote to
Revolution: African American Anticommunism and the Struggle for Civil Rights, 1931-1957.
He is also the author of The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama & the Paradox of Progress
and To The Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic, which was a finalist for
the National Award for Arts Writing. His collection, The Devil & Dave Chappelle and
Other Essays, was also published in 2007. He is editor of The Essential Harold Cruse: A
Reader. Jelani was educated at Jamaica High School, Howard University, and Rutgers
University where he received his doctorate in American History. His articles and
essays have appeared in outlets that include the New Yorker, the Washington Post, and
Essence. He has contributed to a number of anthologies including In Defense of Mumia.
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Rudel Drears is a jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, who received his formal
musical education from the Fiorello LaGuardia High School of Music and Art,
the Manhattan School of Music, and through the jam-session scene of New York
City. A member of a musical family, he is the son of pianist, actor, and playwright,
Marjorie Eliot, and drummer, Al Drears.
Joan P. Gibbs is a long-time activist, writer, and attorney. She was born in Harlem,
but spent most of her growing years in a small town on the coast of North Carolina.
Her writings, poems, essays, and short stories have appeared in a number of
publications, including the Iowa Review and Azalea, the first magazine published by

and for lesbians of color in the United States. Joan was also the founding editor. She
was also a founding member of Dykes Against Racism Everywhere (DARE). Joan
has worked for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU Women’s
Rights Project, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Center for Law and Social
Justice at Medgar Evers College from which she retired in 2015.
David F. Gibson toured extensively and recorded with the Count Basie Orchestra
under the direction of Frank Foster. David has also performed with a host of artists
and ensembles, including Joe Williams, Clark Terry, the Sun Ra Arkestra, the Diane
Schuur Trio, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and the Woody Herman Orchestra.
Music critic, Chip Deffa (the New York Post) says that “Gibson’s drumming is strong
and fluid and as satisfying as any drummer I heard in years.” He is also featured on
recordings that include Diane Schuur’s Music is My Life and Harry Sweets Edison’s
Live at the Iridium and The Odean Pope’s Saxophone Choir’s Saxophone Shop. He is an adjunct
faculty member at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. He earned a
bachelor of music degree from Temple University.
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David Hajdu is the music critic for The Nation and a professor at the Columbia
University Graduate School of Journalism. Before joining The Nation in January
2015, he served for more than ten years as the music critic for The New Republic. He
is currently at work on a “fictional work of nonfiction,” a biography of a nonexistent
songwriter. He is also completing the libretto for a music-performance piece about
Orson Welles. David is the author of four books of nonfiction and one collection of
essays: Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn, Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of
Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña and Richard Fariña, The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great
Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America, Heroes and Villains: Essays on Music, Movies,
Comics, and Culture (2009), and Love for Sale: Pop Music in America.
Patience Higgins is the front man for the Sugar Hill Quartet. He has been a
member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. His other credits include performances
at the White House with Esperanza Spalding and others, as well as tours and
recordings with the Count Basie Orchestra, Lionel Hampton, Ray Charles, Muhal
Richard Abrams, Barry Harris, Stevie Wonder, Hamiet Bluiett’s Baritone Group,
the Pointer Sisters, Savion Glover, Bobby Watson & Tailor Made, David Murray,
Jimmy Scott, Paquito D’ Rivera, Rodney Kendrick, and Yoko Ono. His Broadway
credits include Dreamgirls, The Wiz, and Chicago. He is also featured on Dee Dee
Bridgewater’s double Grammy-Award-winning recording, Dear Ella. He holds a
bachelor of arts degree from New York University.
Roy Jennings, composer and pianist, is the minister of music at the Bronx
Baptist Church. He is also engaged as a performance coach in the post-graduate
studies program at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York.
Upon completion of his graduate studies at the Manhattan School of Music,
Roy embarked on a decade of study of the Viennese classics, Mozart, Beethoven,
and Schubert, with pianist Kurt Appelbaum. During this time, he became pianist
and assistant to Edward Boatner, with whom he studied choral conducting and

arrangement, with a concentration on the African-American spiritual. As performer
and lecturer, Roy advocates for the music of African-American composers and
arrangers of spirituals to be included in the canon of American concert repertoire.
David Levering Lewis is a scholar, whose field is comparative history, with
special focus on twentieth-century United States social history, imperialism in
nineteenth-century Africa, twentieth-century France, and Muslim Iberia. In 2003,
Mr. Lewis was named Julius Silver University Professor and professor of History at
New York University. He holds graduate degrees in History from Columbia (MA)
and the London School of Economics and Political Science (PhD). He has taught
at the University of Notre Dame, Howard University, University of California-
San Diego; Rutgers-New Brunswick; and Harvard. He has authored eight books,
including W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868-1919 and W.E.B. Du Bois: The
Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963. He received the Pulitzer Prize
for Biography in 1994 and 2001. In 2010, he was awarded the National Humanities
Medal by President Barack Obama at the White House. The Society of American
Historians awarded him with its Arthur Meier Schlesinger Distinguished Service
Award in May 2015. He retired from New York University in 2013.
Loira “DJ Laylo” Limbal is also a filmmaker, activist, and mother, who serves as
vice-president for the award-winning Firelight Media. For the past decade, she has
dedicated herself to fusing arts and activism. She has worked at various communitybased
organizations in New York City including the Point Community Development
Corporation, the Dominican Women’s Development Center, and Sista II Sista. In
2006, she founded the Reel X Project, a social justice and creative filmmaking space
for young women of color in the Bronx. Limbal received a BA in History from
Brown University and is a graduate of the Third World Newsreel’s Film and Video
Production Training Program.
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Felipe Luciano is a news reporter and anchor, poet, writer, activist, lecturer, and
radio personality. He was the first Puerto Rican news anchor of a major media
network in the United States, and is a two-time Emmy recipient. In 1966, he enrolled
in Queens College, where he immediately became involved in the student activism
of the 1960s. Felipe soon became known within activist circles for his membership
in the Last Poets, the group of Black Power era artists mentored by Amiri Baraka,
whose politically charged live-music and spoken-word poetry performances in the
1960s prefigured the emergence of hip hop and rap in the 1970s and 1980s. Felipe
was chairman of the Young Lords Party, which became one of the most influential
Puerto Rican organizations of the 1960s. His radio broadcasting experience includes
influential stints for WRVR, WBLS, WLIB, and WBAI. He is currently a lecturer on
the speakers’ circuit.
Jessica McJunkins, violinist, is known for her “dynamic playing” and “fearless
artistry.” As a classical musician, she has had concert engagements with the
Charlotte Symphony, Chicago Chamber Orchestra, Harlem Chamber Players, and
Soulful Symphony. As a recording artist, she has collaborated with noted artists

Sufjan Stevens, Frankie Rose, and more. She has performed with UK pop sensation
Bastille, and at noted venues such as Carnegie Hall, Trinity Wall Street, Symphony
Space, and the DR2 Theater. Jessica was a featured soloist for Broadway’s Becoming
Chaplin. She is a faculty member of the St. Ignatius Loyola School and Sage Music
School of Brooklyn.
Terrance McKnight is the weekday evening host for WQXR 105.9 FM, New
York’s only all-classical music station. He’s also the host and producer of the station’s
audio documentaries on Langston Hughes, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Hazel Scott,
Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, and Florence Beatrice Price. In 2010, his program All
Ears with Terrance McKnight, a show about musical discovery, was honored with an
ASCAP Deems Taylor Radio Broadcast Award. As a speaker, Terrance has worked
with Chamber Music America, the Mellon Foundation, American Opera Projects,
the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Museum of Modern
Art, among others.
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Rosemari Mealy has taught as an adjunct professor at several City University of
New York (CUNY) schools. She first came to CUNY’s Center for Worker Education
(CWE) in 1989. Over the years she has taught numerous courses including: “The
Color Line,” “Labor History,” “Women and Labor Studies,” and “Women and
International Liberation Movements.” and Seminar in Labor Studies. She is the
author of Fidel and Malcolm X: Memories of A Meeting. Her works have appeared
in numerous publications, including The Black Scholar and Journal of Social Work.
Rosemari holds a PhD from Capella University, a Juris Doctorate from the City
University of New York School of Law, an MA from Rutgers University, and BA
from Antioch University.
Melba Joyce grew up under the musical influence of her mother and grandparents.
Her father, Melvin Moore, sang jazz and toured and recorded with Dizzy Gillespie’s
Big Band. Melba Joyce is a singer’s singer, and has opened for artists that include
Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard. She also enjoyed a stint as a background singer
for Smokey Robinson. Melba appeared on Broadway in Black and Blue as understudy
for all three principals: Linda Hopkins, Ruth Brown and Carrie Smith. She holds
a master’s degree from Rutgers University. In service to her art and humanity, she
toured the war-torn fields of Vietnam to entertain the troops at the height of the
war, an experience that raised her social conscience to new heights.
Barbara Montgomery is an actor, writer, and director, whose exceptional career
began in the Off-Off Broadway Movement of the late 1960s, including the Old
Reliable Theatre, Café La MaMa, Joseph Papp’s Public Theatre, and the Negro
Ensemble Company. She has also worked in regional theatre, on Broadway, in
television and film, as well as throughout Europe and the Far East. As a result of
her work as an artist and commitment to community, Barbara’s professional and
humanitarian interests have come together in her directing. She is the recipient of an
Obie Award and several AUDELCO Awards.

Mark Naison is a professor of History and African-American Studies at Fordham
University, and was a collaborator on the Bronx African-American History Project.
He conducted more than 150 interviews with African-American professionals,
community activists, and musicians who grew up in the Bronx. The first product of
this research, It Takes a Village to Raise a Child: Growing Up in the Patterson Houses in the
1950s... was published in the Bronx County Historical Journal. He is also the author of
the award-winning Communists In Harlem During the Depression. Mark earned a PhD in
American History from Columbia University, and a BA and MA—both in American
History—also from Columbia University.
Angela Owens, soprano, has been recognized by the London Times for her “beautifully
musical” performances. She began and ended the 2015-16 season in concert: first at
The American Church in Paris with chef de chant à l’Opéra national de Paris, Morgane
Fauchois-Prado, and later at the Harris Arts Center, presented by the Roland Hayes
Museum. Angela’s experience on the concert stage includes the following repertoire:
Handel’s Messiah and Dettingen Te Deum, Schubert’s Stabat Mater and Mass in G,
Vivaldi’s Gloria, Faure’s Requiem, Brahms’ Liebeslieder Walzer, and Mozart’s Coronation
Mass.
Marcus Persiani has performed with artists that include Jerry Gonzalez, the
Impressions, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Cecil McBee, Tito Puente, Charlie
Persip’s Supersound, Vanessa Rubin, and the Apollo Theater Showtime Band.
He’s toured and recorded with Mario Bauza, Joseph Bowie’s Defunkt, Willie Colon,
and others throughout Europe, Japan, and the United States. His compositions
and arrangements are featured on the brilliant trilogy of albums recorded by
Bauza’s legendary Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, one of which—944 Columbus—
was nominated for a Grammy. He received a bachelor of music degree from the
American Conservatory of Music in Chicago.
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DJ Red Alert is one of the founding fathers of hip hop. He is the only hip hop
deejay honored with a display in the Radio Section of the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame. He has been appointed by the United Nations as an honorary ambassador to
music. Rolling Stone named him as one of the fifty most influential people in music.
He is also a famed radio personality, whose signature style has been heard over
WKRS, WBLS, and others. Red graduated high school as a top-ranking basketball
prospect, and earned a full athletic scholarship to attend Hampton University in
1976, but dropped out, returned home to Harlem, and became a full-time deejay for
Afrika Bambaataa.
Stephen Robinson is a physician and community advocate, with extensive
experience in academic medicine and public health. His clinical career includes
positions in the City University of New York Medical School and Operation
CrossRoads Africa, founded by the late Reverend James H. Robinson, a former
resident of 409 Edgecombe Avenue. Stephen received his medical degree from the
School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington and an MPH
with a concentration in international health from the School of Hygiene and Public

Health, Johns Hopkins University. As a resident of 409 since 1980, he worked with
the Tenants’ Association to organize and prevent the building from being sold to real
estate developers. Stephen was president of the 409 Tenants’ Association when it
purchased this landmark building from the city in 1995.
William Seraile is professor emeritus of Lehman College. He joined Lehman’s
faculty in 1971 and was one of the nation’s pioneers in teaching African-
American history in an academic department. He received a bachelor’s degree
from Central Washington University; a master’s degree from Teachers College,
Columbia University; and a doctorate from the City University of New York. Bill’s
honors include the Unsung Historian Award from the Association for the Study
of Afro-American Life and History; and the William Leo Hansberry Award for
Contributions in History. He is the author of many articles, monographs, and books,
including Angels of Mercy: White Women and the History of New York’s Colored Orphan
Asylum; and Bruce Grit: The Black Nationalist Writings of John Edward Bruce.
13
Esmeralda Simmons is the founder and executive director of the Center for Law
and Social Justice (the Center), small but effective community-based legal advocacy
and research institution that is a unit of Medgar Evers College of the City University
of New York. Prior to founding the Center, Esmeralda was an accomplished
attorney, who was the first deputy commissioner for human rights for New York
State, a Civil Rights attorney for the United States Department of Education, a New
York State assistant attorney general, and a New York City assistant corporation
counsel. She is a deeply spiritual woman who is grounded in African culture. She
finds constant inspiration from the vision of her ancestors, her belief in peace, and
her respect for life and cultural diversity.
Wayne Smith, cellist, made his recital debut at the Kennedy Center in 1996,
and has appeared as soloist and chamber musician in countries that include Italy,
Hungary, and China. He has played with the New Jersey Chamber Music Society,
the National Chamber Orchestra, the Heidelberg Castle Festival Orchestra in
Heidelberg, Germany, among other groups, and was a featured soloist on the PBS
Series Musical Encounters. He has recorded and performed with artists such as
Joe, Richard Smallwood, the Spin Doctors’ Anthony Krizan, and the Moody Blues.
He competed his undergraduate studies at the Eastman School of Music, and his
graduate studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
The Sugar Hill Quartet is the longest-running house band in New York City, having
performed for more than two decades at St. Nick’s Pub, Minton’s, Lenox Lounge,
and, now, at Smoke. The members of the quartet have kept the Harlem jam-session
alive, and have laid down the musical foundation for the likes of Stevie Wonder,
Wynton Marsalis, and Bono. (See separate bios for Patience Higgins, Marcus
Persiani, and David F. Gibson.) As of this writing the bass chair is rotating.
Gordon Thompson has had a laudable career spanning more than two decades
of teaching and service at the City College of New York (CCNY), Louisiana State
University, and Stanford University. As a scholar, he has a demonstrated record of

peer-reviewed publications and is a frequent participant at national and international
conferences. He is also an editor and co-editor of several books. Selected
publications are The Assimilationist Impulse in Representative African-American Narratives;
and Black Music, Black Poetry: Genre, Performance, and Authenticity. Gordon has also had
articles that appeared in refereed journals. Titles include “Methodism and the
Consolation of Heavenly Bliss in Phillis Wheatley’s Funeral Elegies” (CLA Journal).
Gordon received a Ph. D. in American Studies from Yale University; and holds
an MA in American Studies and an MA in Afro-American Studies, also from Yale
University. He received a BA in English from CCNY. Among his other professional
responsibilities, Gordon is the creator, principal investigator, and director of the
RAP-SI project of the Black Male Initiative.
Jerry Vattamala is staff attorney for the Asian-American Legal Defense and
Education Fund.
Marta Moreno Vega is president and founder of the Caribbean Cultural Center
(the Center). She was inspired by a vision to create an international organization to
promote and link communities of African descent. She guided the capital campaign
for the renovation of the landmark firehouse at 120 East 125th Street that will be the
Center’s new home. Marta has conducted research on Yoruba belief systems in the
African Diaspora and has organized international conferences focused on expanding
the knowledge and importance of sacred African Diaspora traditions. Her titles
include The Altar of My Soul.
Reverend LaKeesha Walrond is a native of Galveston, Texas. She attended
Spelman College, where she earned a BA in Psychology and Early Childhood
Development. LaKeesha went on to attend the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), where she earned a master’s degree in Education with an
emphasis on Special Education, and a master’s degree in School Administration with
an emphasis in Educational Leadership. She also received a PhD from UNC-CH in
Special Education and Literacy. Most recently, she attained an MDiv from Union
Theological Seminary. Reverend Walrond currently serves as the executive pastor of
First Corinthian Baptist Church in Harlem.
14
The West Village Quartet is an African-American string quartet, performing
works from the European classical repertoire. The quartet, which derives its’ name as
a result of frequent performances in the West Village, was founded in 1987 by David
Burnett-Caines, who is the group’s second violinist and manager. The San Francisco
Chronicle wrote “The West Village Quartet played with vigorous musicality.....” (See
separate bios for David Caines Burnett, Jessica McJunkins, Tia Allen, and Wayne
Smith)
Elizabeth Yeampierre is an internationally recognized Puerto Rican attorney
and environmental-justice leader of African and Indigenous ancestry, born and
raised in New York City. She is executive director of UPROSE, Brooklyn’s oldest
Latino community-based organization. She was the first Latina chair of the United

States Environmental Protection Agency’s National Environmental Justice Advisory
Council (NEJAC) and served as member of the National Institute for Environmental
Health Sciences Advisory Council. Last year Vogue named her as one of thirteen
women in the world leading the fight for frontline communities against climate
change.
remembering when now
While We Are Still Here (WWSH) is observing a “Centennial Celebration” to laud
the power of the ancestors and our community. This hundred-year anniversary is
approximate, because 409 and 555 Edgecombe Avenue were built circa 1916-1917,
but WWSH is compelled to collect and share the profoundly significant histories of
these “sister” buildings now. Why now, one may ask? Because time and the erasures
of so-called gentrification threaten community memory. In these two buildings,
one can find people and forces whose presences are resonant, whose work set the
standards for culture, intellectual discourse, and athleticism; whose struggles—legal
and otherwise— were intended to ensure democracy for all.
15
As an island of neighborhoods, Manhattan has changed and changed and changed
some more. How many remember when the area—say from 65th Street to 96th
Street—from Central Park West to Broadway was mixed by race and class, and had
many Puerto Rican and Haitian immigrants, as well as African-Americans? And
going way back, how many remember when the area around Lincoln Center was
San Juan Hill, and many Black folk and Indigenous People lived there, including
Thelonious Monk? And going way, way, way back, how many of us truly understand
how Manahatta became Manhattan, relegating the Native Americans to their current
status of near invisibility in this city? How many know that when the real-estate
developers of the early 20th century could not find enough white people to fill the
dwellings they overproduced in Harlem, those developers allowed Black people to
move in?
There are countless other stories that could be recounted, but While We Are Still
Here came into being to ensure that people remember the legacies of 409 and 555.
Both buildings were socioeconomically mixed. Residents ran the gamut, from the
famous, Black, well-to-do, to Black people who worked as servants. They were joined
in community, for better or worse: New York City-style Jim Crow was in full effect.
Joe Louis, world heavyweight champion; Paul Robeson, first international superstar;
W.E.B. Du Bois, theorist for the ages, and others are among the luminaries, who
could not just live anywhere they wished in Manhattan. Nor could their neighbors
who may have been chauffeurs or maids or number runners or barbers or
bootleggers.
continued on back cover

For the poetically prolific Langston Hughes, Harlem and these two buildings were
muses:
…It’s Canada Lee’s penthouse at Five-Fifty-Five.
…It’s 409 Edgecombe or a cold-water walk-up flat—
But it’s where I live and it’s where my love is at
Deep in the Heart of Harlem!
And, inasmuch as the history of a people is sacred, 409 and 555 were, to quote
Langston again, “brick and stone,” but because of what went on inside, these
buildings are revered. For Black people, surely, but, the entire nation derives at least
some of its essence to the contributions that emanated from Harlem. And this is
no mere hyperbole: Think the Jazz Age, named for the music exemplified by Andy
Kirk, Count Basie, Billy Strayhorn. Think Du Bois for his standing as the “father” of
American sociology. Think Paul Robeson for winning the fight—all the way to the
Supreme Court—regarding citizens’ rights to travel, regardless of a citizen’s political
beliefs.
There are many among us, who say they often feel the spirits of those powerful
souls who lived in 409 and 555 decades ago. WWSH wants to channel the historical
narrative of these enduring wonders before their importance is lost and gone forever.
—And so it is.
Graphic Design
Maurice Cook
Creative Art Director
EM Designs Group, Atlanta GA
www.emdesignsgroup.com
Social Media Manager
Terry Johnson
Governmental Supporters
New York City Council, Ydanis Rodriguez
Office of the Manhattan Borough President,
Gale Brewer
Institutional Supporters
Jumel Mansion Neighborhood Association
New York Council for the Humanities
Individual Supporters
Sam Anderson and Rosemari Mealy
Pam Elam, Odette McNeil
Special thanks to: Jewel Allison, Ellen Baxter,
Victor Edwards, Gregg Hope, Sr., Ana-Ofelia
Rodriguez; the folk at Columbia University—
Tina Campt, Andrea Crow, Alyssa Greene, Eileen
Gillooly, Marianne Hirsch; the people at
the Schomburg Center for Research In Black
Culture—Ladi’ Sasha Jones, Novella Ford.
www.wwsh.nyc