Event Details
Harlem Opera Theater will present a special tribute to the history and former residents of the Harlem YMCA at 181 West 135th St., built in 1919. In the Harlem Renaissance it was major institution in the community serving everyone from writers to pullman porters and black youth seeking work in New York City. The West 135th St. YMCA was a temporary home for many African American performers and visitors to New York who were denied lodging in New York's midtown hotels because of racial discrimination. We invite you to hear the voices of Harlem Opera Theater present opera, the spiritual arrangement and the history of this historic institution. The Tribute will take place at the Harlem YMCA's Little Theatre where historic figures such as Paul Robeson performed. Dr. Martin Luther King, spoke several times at the Harlem YMCA during the Civil Rights Movement. It was a key location for Dr. King's activism, networking and addressing urgent social issues in New York.