Join the IHGC community in celebrating the recent publication of Sandhya Shukla's Cross-Cultural Harlem: Reimagining Race and Place.  Published by Columbia Universit Press, Cross-Cultural Harlem reveals a dynamic of exchange that provokes a rethinking of spaces such as Black Harlem, El Barrio, and Italian Harlem. Cross-cultural encounters among African Americans, West Indians, Puerto Ricans, Jews, and Italians provide a story of multiplicity that challenges the framework of territorial enclaves. Shukla illuminates the historical processes that have shaped the diversity of Harlem, examining the many dimensions of its Blackness—Southern, African, Caribbean, Puerto Rican, and more—as well as how white ethnicities have been constructed. Considering literary and historical examples such as Langston Hughes’s short story “Spanish Blood,” the career of the Italian American left-wing Harlem congressman Vito Marcantonio, and the autobiography of Puerto Rican–Cuban writer Piri Thomas, Shukla argues that cosmopolitanism and racial belonging need not be seen as contradictory. Cross-Cultural Harlem offers a vision of sustained dialogue to respond to the challenges of urban transformations and to affirm the future of Harlem as actual place and global symbol.

This event will include an introduction from Dr. Fiona Ngo (American Studies) and will feature a brief presentation from Shukla followed by a Q&A moderated by Ngo.  Please register for the event by February 21 here.  Registrants may stop by the IHGC for FREE COPIES of the book, while supplies last.