Sharifa rhodes-pitts biography for kids

In an elegant weave of essays titled Harlem is Nowhere, writer Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts braids vigorous historical and personal observations about New York’s most famous neighborhood and raises big questions about its future as the mecca of black America.

But my first question upon discovering the book was: How does a young writer born and raised in Houston, Texas, find herself so tangled up in all the things Harlem has been and has lost?

Sharifa rhodes-pitts biography for kids

After all, between the Camp Logan riots and the nearly eviscerated Freedman’s Town (aka the Fourth Ward), there’s plenty of divisive black history to explore back in her hometown.  

But this is one of the few questions this highly intelligent young woman had trouble answering when she visited Seattle last week. 

Thinking it might hold a key, I asked her in a phone interview: How is Houston like Harlem?

She replied much more optimistically than I predicted: 

“Houston didn’t always