day 3 of the OUDC summer journey, is our last in New York and brought us to Harlem for an amazing walking tour. our tourguide was Neil Shoemaker of Heritage Tours, and he spoke with the passion of a poet and the conviction of the civil rights leaders he told us about. we got to see the Apollo Theater and the displays and people still out as a tribute to Michael Jackson. after lunch we went to Jummah services at Masjid Malcolm Shabazz which was and always is a great experience. Brother Tariq spoke with us about Islam and corrected some common misconceptions that people have. right now i am walking back from Shabbat services at B’nai Jeshurun and typing this on my phone. that’s why i’m gonna be brief withthe first update here. BJ services are so much fun because they invite us to sing and dance with them and the large congregation gets into it like no other. tomorrow we fly to NC and start our Southern portion of the journey. i’ll post more later. i got great quotes and insights to drop on you, so check back soon. peace.
Harlem BJ
Published by JBT
Born in Washington, DC and raised in Crofton, Maryland, Jonathan B. Tucker (JBT) is a writer, performer, educator, DJ, and dreamer passionate about poetry, youth empowerment, racial and social justice, and finding purpose through service to others. He has received numerous awards and artist fellowships, and has performed and taught at schools, libraries, detention centers, museums, and conferences around the world. His poems have appeared in Howard University’s Amistad Journal alongside the late Amiri Baraka (Howard University, 2011), in Etan Thomas’s anthology Voices of the Future (Haymarket Books, 2012), in two self-published chapbooks (jonathan b. tucker, 2010; and i got the matches, 2012), and on the stages of the Kennedy Center and the South African State Theatre. JBT represented DC at the National Poetry Slam in 2009 and 2010, and has helped coordinate and coach the DC Youth Slam Team with Split This Rock since 2011. View all posts by JBT
