Books & Authors: UP/DOWN, NORTH/SOUTH

Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts and V. Mitch McEwen in Conversation

In August 1964, Harper’s Magazine published a 1948 essay by Ralph Ellison called “Harlem is Nowhere,” in which he writes: “The phrase ‘I’m nowhere’ expresses the feeling borne in upon many Negroes that they have no stable, recognized place in society. One’s identity drifts in a capricious reality in which even the most commonly held assumptions are questionable. One ‘is’ literally, but one is nowhere; one wanders dazed in a ghetto maze, a ‘displaced person’ of American democracy.” Separate from the social and economic changes taking place in Harlem, Ellison was interested in contextualizing its “psychological character.”

Acclaimed writer Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts extends Ellison’s analysis of Harlem’s psychological character—which remains as timely as ever in the 21st century—in her new book Harlem is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America. Taking its title from Ellison’s essay, the book approaches our iconic neighborhood as both a physical and metaphorical place, simultaneously utopic and dystopic. It re-discovers and re-assesses its myths, histories and geographies, as well as the author’s personal experience of it as a transplant to New York. This Thursday, January 13 at 7:00 pm, Rhodes-Pitts will be here at the Museum to discuss her book along with V. Mitch McEwen, architect, urban designer and founder/director of Brooklyn and LA-based SUPERFRONT. McEwen’s work examines the spatial, physical and social structures of buildings and urban space from both critical and technical standpoints. Paired with Rhodes-Pitts’s literary, archival look at Harlem, the two will provide a multidisciplinary perspective on this neighborhood’s present and past realities.

Advance copies of Harlem is Nowhere will be available for purchase at the event, and the author will sign books after the discussion.

This is the first in a series of three public dialogues entitled Up/Down, North/South, part of OFF/SITE, a collaboration between The Studio Museum in Harlem and the Goethe-Institut New York. Each program draws on the notion of geography and the role of place in artistic production—discussions will address local concerns about the relationship between urban environment and aesthetics, as well as art-making practices in black European society. In particular, Up/Down, North/South strives to question art historical discourses that have emerged between “East” and “West” in the wake of Communism, emphasizing ideas of cultural syncretism and antagonism.

Please stay tuned to Studio Blog and the studiomuseum.org calendar for upcoming programs! To get the latest on what’s happening uptown, subscribe to our e-newsletter, located on our homepage.