UB Literature Students Experience the Sights, Sounds, and Flavors of Harlem

Literature came to life for students in English 223, Modern African American Literature, when their professor, Dr. Rebecca Pawel, organized a field trip to Harlem, the New York City neighborhood that played such an important role in African American history, most famously as the epicenter of the Harlem Renaissance.

If you were not fortunate enough to accompany Dr. Pawel and her students on their tour, this photo essay is the next best thing.

On East 127th Street (Langston Hughes Way!) next to the brownstone where Langston Hughes lived for the last 20 years of his life. (The actual brownstone is being restored and is under scaffolding but this one is its twin.) .)

Langston Hughes's home block

In front of the Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. statue on West 125th Street, and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard (formerly Seventh Avenue).

Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.'s statue on 125th Street (with NY State office building in the background).

We stopped at the Harlem YMCA, where many Harlem Renaissance writers lived when they first came to NYC, in order to see its murals.

Artwork inside the 135th St Harlem YMCA.

We also went to the Schomburg Center to see the exhibit on Arthur Schomburg's library (the germ of the current Schomburg Center for Research in African American Culture).

From the exhibit on Arthur Schomburg.

The jazz club Bill's Place. ("Like the end of "Sinners" according to one student.)

Waiting for the show to begin at Bill's Place.

Reggae at Red Rooster Restaurant.

The "Chicken Tower" at Red Rooster which (with generous sides) was more than enough food!