BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//InvisionCommunity Events 5.0.18//EN METHOD:PUBLISH CALSCALE:GREGORIAN REFRESH-INTERVAL:PT15M X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT15M X-WR-CALNAME:RMWorkCalendar NAME:RMWorkCalendar BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London TZURL:https://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Europe/London X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20250330T020000Z RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20251026T020000Z RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Book Review: HAMILTON HEIGHTS and SUGAR HILL: Alexander Hami lton's Old Harlem Neighborhood Through the Centuries by Davida Siwisa Jame s DTSTAMP:20250825T232834Z SEQUENCE:0 UID:475-5-c3fe8195a3dde498d013e477e2142422@aalbc.com ORGANIZER;CN="richardmurray":noreply@aalbc.com DESCRIPTION:\n HAMILTON HEIGHTS and SUGAR HILL: Alexander Hamilton's Old Harlem Neighborhood Through the Centuries\n\n by Davida Siwisa James  @D eeSiwisa\n\n Fordham University Press: Empire State Editions\n\n Nonfictio n\; 432 pages\; 126 illustrations: PUBLICATION DATE: April 2\, 2024\n\n IS BN-13:   978-1531506148\n\n\n\n BUYING PAGE\n\n\n\n https://aalbc.com/boo ks/hamilton-heights-and-sugar-hill-9781531506148\n\n REFERRAL IN AALBC\n\n https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/10792-hamilton-heights-and-sugar-hill-book-rev iew-request/\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n MY REVIEW\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n \" Indeed\, the average Harlemite's impression of white folk\, democracy and life in general is rather bad. Naturally if you live on nice\, tree line d\, quiet convent avenue\, even though you are colored\, it would never occur to you to riot or break windows.\" Langston Hughes\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n \n Davida Siwisa James unbiased\, temporally complete history book achieve s three goals of equal value. One\, to be as definitive a history book t o the Hamilton Heights or Sugar Hill sections of Harlem. No single book h as the length to cover the complete history of Harlem\, that will demand an encyclopedia which reading this book proves. Two\, to explain through the history of said regions in Harlem how Harlem has heritages of blemish ed grandeurs that includes all people from the Native American populace be fore European colonies to the time of this prose in the Gregorian year tw o thousand and twenty-four. Said heritages warrant preservation that can b ecome a living example of multiracial coexistence in the USA if implement ed equal to all. Three\, to explain how the negativities: negative biases from whites to non-whites\, negative biases from the financially wealthy of any phenotype to the financially poor of any phenotype\, negative bia s from New York City in ruling/governing/administering Harlem\, created a constancy of: lies\, malfunctions\, pains that have always hindered the r each of grandeurs born in Harlem but have not stymied the potential of Ha rlem. Said potential of Harlem is to be the truest example of peaceful po sitive productive life for pan-individuals in the declaration that many i n humanity cling to as a hope. Siwisa\, a Harlemite\, achieves all three intricate\, modernly purposeful\, goals.\n\n\n\n She uses a straightforwa rd temporal sequence\, as chapters\, from the time of the Lenape\, long go ne outside name places\, to the time of New York City's first Black Mayor\ , Harlemite David Dinkins. Unlike most historians\, who try to provide a history to a place from its past to modernity\, she was able to communic ate with residents long gone or residents relatively new\, while includin g her own life\, to support the temporal width of her work. Reading this book\, you can tell Siwisa loves Harlem but isn't willing to accept a grea t memory. She wants to fight against the literary plus nonliterary challe nges the region has to live with. \n\n\n\n I\, a Harlemite\, was unaware that Harlem was to be named Lancaster by the British empire on winning N ew Amsterdam and turning it into New York. But from the time of New Amste rdam onward\, which the book conveys through Harlemites  named Hamilton/ Jumel/Deforest/Hughes/Williams/Powell jr./Spollen\, the region has constan tly been a chess piece for New York City and a harbor for the heart of Ne w York City's culture of integration. If you don't know about Harlem\, t his book is a great starting point for it will create a proper framework to comprehending the region which has\, sadly\, a heritage of being mislab eled or mis-defined or misrepresented\, even when mostly white before the New Negro Movement. If you know about Harlem\, you already know Harlem has a vast history\, that involves the entire racial landscape of the USA . But you will learn many new things about Harlem through the Hamilton He ights or Sugar Hill regions\, which are the main subject of the book. \n\ n\n\n The entire history in the book is supported evenly by photographic o r illustrative evidence\, which is mandatory in modern times while also s erving as undeniable proof for naysayers to Harlem's various periods of g randeur in its history. Harlem's history is as bright as the light off th e skyscrapers to its south\, while the perception of it is plagued by a s hadow that was and is constructed or maintained by those in or out of Har lem. Let this book take down the blinds page by page. \n\n\n\n \n\n DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250402 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;INTERVAL=1 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR