Karen Taborn

It was only after receiving my Master of Arts in jazz that I stumbled upon an opportunity to write about Black history. In 1999, a consortium of New York professionals working on a project called the Strivers Center Project—to revitalize 135th Street in Harlem—invited me to conduct secondary research on Harlem's rich Black history. I was longing for this opportunity! I dived in with complete abandon, reading every book on the subject that I could get my hands on. I knew that this opportunity could possibly open doors for me beyond being a singer and musician, to become an historian and a writer, something I privately longed for. I produced a paper titled “What Made Harlem Famous” and the finalized Strivers Center Project resulted in a Harlem Walk of Fame, installed on West 135th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues.”

Keywords: Black history ; Culture Studies ; Jazz ; Music ; New York City ; Race