Showing results for "Harlem" in Biographies & Memoirs

Author Ron Chepesiuk chronicles the little known history of organized crime in Harlem.

African American organized crime has had as significant an impact on its constituent community as Italian, Jewish, and Irish organized crime has had on theirs. Gangsters are every bit as colorful, intriguing, and powerful as Al Capone and Lucky Luciano, and have a fascinating history in gambling, prostitution, and drug dealing. In the late 1800s, Harlem became a highly fashionable neighborhood.

The first and only full biography on legendary Harlem gangster, Bumpy Johnson who was depicted in the movies Cotton Club, Hoodlum, and American Gangster.

In Harlem’s tumultuous history, there are many tragedies. For those growing up in this part of New York City, a young man known simply as Fritz from West 112th Street became an urban legend in Harlem. In the 1970s, Richard “Fritz” Simmons is introduced to the drug trade by an associate of the Lucchese crime family, one of the five families of La Cosa Nostra (the Mafia). After negotiating a deal with the Medellín Cartel, Fritz becomes New York’s Cocaine Consignment King. Harlem Holiday brings her inside scoop after almost three decades of silence.

Harlem 1969; it's the height of the Civil Rights era and the community is still reeling from the assassination of Martin Luther King. Arthur Mitchell, the first Black principal dancer at the New York City Ballet, takes his protest to the stage and establishes the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Here begins the story of the five extraordinary women at the heart of this book. This is a book about ballet, the enduring allure of ballet for young girls, and about how these pioneers broke into a world that was closed to them and changed ideas of what a classical dancer could be.

In the late 1970s, a string of seemingly unconnected murders had Harlem police and federal authorities at their wits' end until they realized several commonalities. The victims were all either Mafia members or potential witnesses of Mafia activity and they'd all been shot from .22 pistols traced back to a single private sale in Florida. From these details, the FBI and police were able to build a profile of a rogue sect of Mafia hitmen known as the East Harlem Purple Gang.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW NOTABLE BOOK Finalist for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography The forgotten story of a pioneering group of five Black ballerinas and their fifty-year sisterhood, a legacy erased from history—until now. “This is the kind of history I wish...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Dapper Dan is a legend, an icon, a beacon of inspiration to many in the Black community. His story isn’t just about fashion. It’s about tenacity, curiosity, artistry, hustle, love, and a singular determination to live our dreams out loud.”—Ava DuVernay...

Arthur Briggs's life was Homeric in scope. Born on the the tiny island of Grenada, he set sail for Harlem during the Renaissance, then to Europe in the aftermath of World War I, where he was among the first pioneers to introduce jazz music to the world. During the legendary Jazz Age in Paris, Briggs's trumpet provided the soundtrack while Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and the rest of the Lost Generation got drunk. By the 1930s, Briggs was considered "the Louis Armstrong of Paris," and was the peer of the greatest names of his time, from Josephine Baker to Django Reinhardt.

Walt is a new detective assigned to one of the most dangerous precincts in 1950's New York. Spanish Harlem was a cauldron of poverty, crime, and racial tension. These true stories trace the beginning of Walt's career, before the Second World War and span the turbulent years of New York City's slow decline. Walt encountered everything from horrific murders and domestic violence, to systemic corruption and even an unexpected brush with the paranormal.

New York City in the Jazz Age was host to a pulsating artistic and social revolution. Uptown, an unprecedented explosion in black music, literature, dance, and art sparked the Harlem Renaissance. While the history of this African-American awakening has been widely explored, one chapter remains...

From "Facts of Life" to "Living Single" to "Dancing with the Stars" to wife and mom, here's the Blessed Life of Kim Fields, veteran actress, TV personality, and star. Kim Fields has lived most of her life with people thinking they know her, which is understandable. From her first job on a Mrs...

As a diplomat's son, star athlete, and Harvard Law School graduate, in the early 1980s, Joseph Holland had a world of opportunities awaiting him on Wall Street and in corporate America. Instead, Holland moved to the inner city, driven by a divine calling full of unfolding mystery and challenge. He found himself in Harlem during the nadir of its blight and endeavored to contribute to a neighborhood that was tough in every sense of the word. Holland earned his stripes as an entrepreneur/activist embracing a vision of personal and community transformation.

FINALIST FOR THE ANISFIELD-WOLF BOOK AWARD “Raucously immersive...An intimate portrait of Black opulence in the early 20th century.” —Oprah Daily A “scintillating, vibrant” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) and deeply researched biography of A’Lelia Walker—daughter of Madam C.J...

Born into a white, suburban family, Vera fell for black music as a child and started down a winding performer's path that would buoy him the rest of his life. In the sixties, Vera paid his bills by songwriting (for other artists) through the day and playing mobbed up clubs at night. As blue-eyed soul went out of fashion, Vera, like many other musicians, found himself scrounging for survival gigs, but one crucial difference set him apart: he abstained from the drugs and drink that fuelled – and eventually claimed – so many of his contemporaries.

This audiobook, features a dual narration Bahni Turpin, and foreword by Michael Kors, read by Daniel Henning. Reminiscent of style icon Iris Apfel's New York Times bestseller Accidental Icon and echoes of Andre Leon Talley’s The Chiffon Trenches comes the entertaining and thoughtful...

Harlem, capitale virtuale di una altrettanto virtuale nazione: l’America nera. Sulle strade illuminate dai club per bianchi, agitate dalle rivolte e scaldate dalle parole di Martin Luther King e Malcolm X, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar fa le prime esperienze e incontra le tracce del suo passato. A conquistarlo è l’onda lunga dell’Harlem Renaissance, il periodo che dagli anni Venti fino ai Quaranta del Novecento ha impegnato artisti, scrittori, intellettuali che volevano dare dignità ai neri e costruire l’immagine dell’afroamericano moderno.

Using Harlem's cultural institutions and memorable characters as her backdrop, Mulligan writes joyously about weathering adolescence while history unfolds around her. This feel-good story resonates with humor and warmth as she chronicles her life among evangelists, curly-haired doo wop boys, snuff-dippers, Fidel Castro's entourage, interracial marriage, chitlin' parties and testy interactions between West Indians and Blacks. This audiobook is a living document of mid-20th century Harlem with appeal for all America.

Jimi Hendrix & the Ghetto Fighters in Harlem World is the story of The Aleem Twins, who rose from the streets of Harlem to influence virtually every musical genre of their generation, and whose mysterious connection to Jimi Hendrix, one of 20th-century's most important musicians, has launched hundreds of folk tales.

New York City Blues: Postwar Portraits from Harlem to the Village and Beyond offers a deep dive into the blues venues and performers in the city from the 1940s through the 1990s. Interviews in this volume bring the listener behind the scenes of the daily and performing lives of working musicians, songwriters, and producers. The interviewers capture their voices—many sadly deceased—and reveal the changes in styles, the connections between performers, and the evolution of New York blues.

Na voz de Roberta Estrela D'Alva, com direção de Daniela Thomas, o audiolivro Malcolm X – "A revolução negra" e outros textos reúne discursos importantes de Malcolm, além de cartas escritas durante sua viagem à Arábia Saudita e alguns países africanos. Malcolm buscava despertar nas massas a coragem de lutar pelos seus direitos. Sua atuação foi violentamente interrompida pelo assassinato que o vitimou, aos 39 anos.