Harlem // Current

Harlem Barbershop featured in Chris Rock's "Good Hair" documentary (BEST QUALITY)

Harlem represents in Chris Rock's new movie,"Good Hair". TRY Star Barbershop on Lenox... more

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Filming Locations for September 18

Ugly Betty is filming around Bayard St and Mcguinness Blvd in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.... more

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Picture The Homeless Tent City

This documents an action, to reclaim a vacant lot for homeless people in Harlem. By... more

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Harlem Speaks (Part 2 of 2) on Harvard Professor arrest and Racial Profiling

Dante Higgins gets Harlem's voice on the recent arrest of African American Harvard... more

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Harlem Speaks on Harvard Professor arrest and Racial Profiling PART 1

Dante Higgins gets Harlem's voice on the recent arrest ofAfrican American Harvard... more

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A Somber Night at the Apollo: A Celebration of Michael Jackson

It all started with a family: call them Joe and Kate plus — actually don’t, because unlike people for whom a journalist needs to make a far-reaching comparison in order to create relevance to her audience’s lives, this international supernova needs no such thing. Today, hundreds of fans gathered at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York to celebrate the life of Michael Jackson.

“Michael!” “Jackson!” “Michael!” “Jackson! ”The crowd bellows back and forth. The lights from the legendary theater glean over the audience of hundreds, yet it’s only supplementary to the light the crowd emits as it gives its best rendition of the “Thriller” choreography. Men, women and kids from different backgrounds, neighborhoods and even countries have come to be a part of the festivities.

Jean Deler made his way to the theater around 10 p.m. Earlier, he had a feeling something big was going to happen today, but he didn’t know it would be this big, “I was in disbelief. I thought they were just joking around. I had the 9/11 disbelief,” said Deler.

For Antoinette Powell, her attendance is a family affair— dancing with her mother and her kids, all of them belting Jackson’s lyrics. “ I remember I was in elementary school and my babysitter took me to see where he was filming 'Bad.' I saw him waving as he was going into his limo and I know he was waving at me; nobody could tell me any differently.” “No,” says her mother, Cassilda Powell, “What he was trying to tell you was, ‘Tell your Mama I’ll be there in a minute.’”

Crowds huddle around as a woman in a blue MTA uniform perched a boom box on top of her head. “Beat It” starts blaring from its speakers and fans keep on dancing. Off to the side, there’s another huddle around 13-year-old Soumaila Traore. After a couple pops, locks and a brief moonwalk he coyly backs off. “Why’d you stop?” says a man two decades his senior, “It’s up to y’all now, we can’t do that anymore.”

Merely looking at the crowd lends itself to the generational impact Jackson made. Traore said he felt compelled to come out — past his bedtime — to represent and support Jackson’s legacy. Even though he was not even born when Jackson’s greatest hits debuted and the fact that there is a sea of NeYos, Justin Timberlakes and Ushers, he simply says, “I’m a fan.”

Vikki Taylor feels the same way: “When you grow up with Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 you know how great they are.” But it wasn’t until a turning moment when Taylor truly saw Jackson as a superstar in his own right. His performance at the Motown 25th anniversary cemented his status in her mind; his talent and sparkling glove blinded her: “It blew me away.”

Though the music fills the air, people sing, cameras click and candles burn, a certain heaviness settles on members of the crowd. “I celebrated my grandbaby’s graduation today; I didn’t expect my day to end like this,” said Cassilda. “I was crying so bad; I was on the phone and my friend said, ‘Why you crying? You didn’t know him, he wouldn’t be crying at your funeral.’ But that’s not the point,” she says while wiping the tears from her face.

Reina Allen could not hold her tears though her friend tried to help dance off the pain. She knew Jackson a little bit better than the rest. A close family member served as a body guard for Jackson, and Allen recalled a much different Michael than who was projected on TV screens. “He was such a decent person,” she said.

Despite Jackson’s physical death, she echoes what so many have said: Jackson’s music has a life of its own, and the man from Neverland has truly achieved immortality.It all started with a family: call them Joe and Kate plus — actually don’t,... more