March is Women’s History Month—a time specifically set aside to celebrate the achievements and the impact that women have made on the world. We are proud to welcome Leah Abraham and Beatrice Sibblies, two dedicated and highly accomplished women from our own community, as our guests at the March Mount Morris Talks—Thursday, March 4, 6:30 to 8 PM.

Leah Abraham

Leah Abraham is the co-owner of Ristorante Settepani, which she opened in Harlem 10 years ago with her husband, Nino Settepani. A native of Ethiopia, Leah has been part of the New York City culinary scene for more than 15 years.  Her multicultural perspective, her graciousness and her entrepreneurial spirit have come together on the corner of Lenox Avenue to give Harlem one of its most popular upscale meeting places.

Settepani has come to embody Leah’s belief in the power of community and the importance of family. In celebration of their 10 year anniversary, Settepani’s new spring menu will emphasize locally grown food and healthier eating.

Jamel Joseph

On Thursday, February 4, from 6:30-8:00 PM, MMPCIA welcomes filmmaker and educator Jamal Joseph as its speaker for Mount Morris Talks! — a series of conversations between the community and leaders, news makers, artists, authors and thinkers who live in the Harlem area.

When Jamal Joseph urges young people to grow, heal, come together or reinvent themselves through the arts and education, he’s speaking from some pretty compelling first-hand experience.

These days Joseph is recognized as chair of Columbia University’s Graduate Film Program, co-founder and executive artistic director of the IMPACT Repertory Theatre of Harlem, executive artistic director of the New Heritage Theatre Group and an Oscar nominee, to name just a few highlights.

He was directing theater back in the ’80s, too — a prison theater, which he established while serving time at the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, KS, for harboring a fugitive in a fatal armored car robbery.

It was that time in federal prison, Joseph says, combined with his experiences in the Black Panther Party, that became the fire forging his creative sword and launched him into a lifetime spent helping others learn, share and grow through the arts. While in prison he earned two college degrees, wrote five plays and two volumes of poetry, and founded a theater company that brought together prisoners who’d previously been divided by race, culture and beliefs.

After his release from prison he started teaching, and eventually became a professor at Columbia — the same university where as a 15-year-old he’d been part of the big protests of 1968.

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Craig S. Harris

On Thursday, January 14, from 6:30-8:00 PM, MMPCIA is proud to begin our 2010 series of Mount Morris Talks! with a visit with Craig S. Harris, world-renowned jazz trombonist who for three decades has shared his distinctive talent and take on the African-American music vocabulary with a global audience.

A born collaborator, Craig Harris has created and performed with such jazz greats as Sun Ra, Sam Rivers, Lester Bowie, Abdullah Ibrahim, Makanda Ken McIntyre, Jaki Byard, Cecil Taylor and Muhal Richard Abrams.

Although his career is clearly rooted in the world of progressive jazz, he has successfully branched out into multimedia and performance art as composer, performer, conceptualist, curator and artistic director. He has blended his musical talent and innovation with that of other musicians and vocalists in and out of the jazz world as well as with the words of acclaimed poets and the works of world-class choreographers.

One of his most prolific collaborations has been with the poet Sekou Sundiata, beginning with their collaboration on the acclaimed praise poem The Circle Unbroken Is a Hard Bop, which opened at Aaron Davis Hall in 1992, then went on to win the theater world’s prestigious Bessie Award and garner honors for both Sundiata and Harris as writer and composer, respectively.

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We want to be first on your holiday calendar! Tuesday, December 8, the Mount Morris Park Community Improvement Association will gather with friends, neighbors and supporters to ring in the season and celebrate its 2nd Annual Holiday Gala & Fund Raiser.

The Holiday Gala & Fund Raiser is one of MMPCIA’s important fund raising efforts. Proceeds support the Scholarship Award given in June to a Harlem High School senior on her/his way to college; the Harlem Library; the Rice High School Student Tuition Fund; provide toys for the holidays to children in need; and help support the organization’s other community efforts set forth in its annual goals.

The Oline Auction Ends at 9PM Monday, 12/7! You can still join the fun today by logging on to MMPCIA’s Online Silent Auction! Click here and you’ll find how easy it is to find special gift items for yourself–or significant others–from Dinners for Two at local restaurants, gift certificates, collectibles and fashion items, to Harlem Renaissance artwork from established and up-and-coming Harlem artists, weekends away, and more.

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MMPCIA Presents the First Annual Mount Morris Park Halloween Extravaganza, Saturday, October 31 from 1 to 7 PM!

The Mount Morris Park Community Improvement Association has teamed up with the Harlem Library, The Jericho Project, The Neighbors of W121 Street, and local businesses—Chez Luciennne, Melba’s, Nectar, Society Cafe, Tonni’s Minis, N Boutique, Harlem Park-to-Park and Settepani—to provide an afternoon of old-fashioned Halloween fun for the neighborhood kids—and the perennial young at heart.

Here’s what’s brewing for the day:

1 PM: Mask Designing (all ages welcome) and  Story Telling for the toddlers, in the Harlem Library, 9 West 124 Street.

1-2 PM: Costume Contest Registration*. Sign up across the street from the Harlem Library, 9 West 124 Street. Categories include Children, Teenagers, Adult Women, Adult Men–and Dogs! There will be lots of fun prizes awarded to the winners.

2 PM: Halloween Parade will begin in front of the Harlem Library, 9 West 124 Street, and will follow the lead of the Grand Marshall, Chief Phillip Banks from NYPD Northern Manhattan. The spooky group will make its way in and around Marcus Garvey Park to the judging table for the Costume Contest on Mount Morris Park West and West 122 Street.

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Mount Morris Park Community Improvement Association to Unveil its Tangible Tools Promoting Partnerships, Education and Business.

A VIP Friendraiser will be held on Friday, October 23, at 10:00 AM, at the Harlem Branch of the New York Public Library, 9 West 124th Street, as part of the strategic imperative of revitalizing and preserving the community.

The MMPCIA Board of Directors will outline its initiatives implementing tangible tools that are effective and measurable with the combined efforts of elected officials, businesses, and residents.

A Town Hall Symposium inviting key stakeholders and politicians to answer direct questions from the neighborhood’s residents and the Holiday Gala fundraiser which helps support college-bound, Harlem high school students with their higher educational goals, are just two of the programs that will be presented at the Friendraiser.

According to Dr. Cheryl Smith, MMPCIA president, “The objective of the Friendraiser is to invite influencers to get to know us and to conduct a “think tank”– if you will — of a small group of individuals to share in the strategic planning of our programs to encourage co-op opportunities, sponsorships, and ideas, to make them better.” Read the rest of this entry »

On Tuesday, September 29, from 6:30-8:00 PM, MMPCIA welcomes neighbor, Clara Villarosa, as kick-off guest speaker in its second season of Mount Morris Talks! — a series of conversations between the community and leaders, news makers, artists, authors and thinkers who live in the Harlem area.

Clara Villarosa is nationally known as co-founder of two influential bookstores focused on the African American market: the Hue-Man Experience, established in Denver in 1984, and the Hue-Man Bookstore & Cafe which opened in Harlem in 2002. Situated in the Harlem USA retail complex a half a block from the world-famous Apollo Theatre, the 4,000 sf space became the largest African American bookstore in the US and an important destination for both Harlem residents and visitors. The store has had the privilege of hosting famous authors including, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Terri McMillan, E. Lynn Harris, Colin Powell, Maya Angelou, Bebe Moore Campbell and Walter Mosley. In June 2004, the bookstore hosted the historic event where former President Bill Clinton signed more than 2,100 copies of his memoir. Read the rest of this entry »

MMPCIA is holding its 1st Annual Midsummer Membership Drive Picnic next Tuesday, July 28, from 6 to 9 PM.

A strong neighborhood voice is important to Central Harlem. Over the years, MMPCIA has continued to be that irrepressible squeaky wheel that the police, politicians and NYC Commissioners listen to with a bit of trepidation.

MMPCIA’s place as an advocate for the neighborhood in Harlem and New York City continues to solidify. And this capacity to have an impact on the revitalization and preservation issues of our community is directly attributable to the strength of its Membership–those stakeholders from in and around the community who understand that it takes time, talent and treasure to stay strong and relevant.

It is in appreciation of these friends and neighbors that MMPCIA is hosting its first annual A Midsummers Night’s Picnic in the Park. Read the rest of this entry »

Rockstar Games presents the 36th Annual David Walker Memorial Cycling Classic in Mount Morris Park on
Sunday, June 21.

Rockstar Games is the new presenting sponsor of the venerated Skyscraper Harlem Cycling Classic. The 36th anniversary edition will be be held on its traditional Father’s Day date, Sunday, June 21st, at Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem.

The race will be in memorial of the event founder, David Walker, (Det. Sgt. Ret. NYPD) who died in July 2008. In 1973, Dave started a bicycle safety program for children. This bicycle safety program has become the Skyscraper, the oldest and most prestigious cycling race New York City, often attracting world class, Olympic cyclists.

The classic .75-mile, four-corner criterium course (or short-course cycling event) has always thrilled its audiences with exciting performances from world-class cyclists such as George Hincapie, famed Australian 6-Day Rider, Danny Clark, and World Professional Pursuit Champion, Mike McCarthy, who have all won in Harlem. Read the rest of this entry »

A Mount Morris Park Brownstone

From the 1920s into the 1940s, Harlem’s first Renaissance captured a social and intellectual transformation in the African-American community. Words became music, music became jazz, jazz become poetry, poets became spokesmen; together, these voices became a chorus that changed the world. This rich cultural heritage is reflected in the very fabric of many Harlem residents and their homes today—if you know where to look.

2009 celebrates 20 years of inviting guests into the special homes of the Mount Morris Park Historic District. This year, 12 brownstones, apartments and churches will open their doors and share their stories. The theme is A Harlem Renaissance House Party and stops along the way will feature the sights and sounds of celebration like those you would have experienced in Harlem during the first flowering of African American cultural and intellectual life.

Come on in—you know you’ve always wanted to peek inside these beautiful townhouses! Read the rest of this entry »