Planet Harlem
About This Listing
Place Details
- Borough: Manhattan
- Neighborhood: Harlem
- Categories: Arts and Entertainment, Public Art
Place Matters Profile
Written by Imani Wilson for Place Matters and the Fall 2022 History, Identity, and Place course of NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Studies MA Program (photo by Imani Wilson, 2022)
Planet Harlem is located on the northwest corner of Malcolm X Blvd (Lenox Ave) and 126th Street in Upper Manhattan. The vibrant, and beautifully crafted, mixed media mural was born out of local artist Paul Deo’s vision of Harlem’s deep legacy as a “safe place for Black genius.” In 2012, a local Harlem restaurant, Corner Social, launched a competition in collaboration with the Harlem Arts Alliance calling for Harlem-based visual artists to creatively construct a mural on the exterior of the building at 321 Lenox Avenue. After three phases of voting, Paul Deo was selected out of a pool of finalists to compose a mural that captures Harlem’s tradition of arts and culture. The initial mural was unveiled to the public on December 12, 2012. Today, Planet Harlem stands out as a colorful symphony of Black artists, thinkers, writers, dancers, and change makers, who not only walked the streets of Harlem, but represents its continued essence and beauty. From Harlem natives like writer James Baldwin to supermodel Pat Cleveland — Planet Harlem aims to serve as a mirror for local residents, and all those who walk past it, to recognize the expansive possibilities that exist within them.
For many, “Harlem” invokes the neighborhood’s reputation as a cultural capital of Black America because of the esteemed Harlem Renaissance that took place in the 1920s and 1930s. However, settlement of Black populations in Harlem had a much earlier start, at the turn of the twentieth century. With the Great Migration, New York City saw a large growth in population of Black people from the South, on top of already established Black communities in parts of lower Manhattan. In 1904, Phillip A. Payton Jr, a young Black American realtor, noticed the low levels of housing occupancy north of Central Park. Despite the high investment in housing infrastructure in upper Manhattan following the creation of the Lenox Avenue subway, the housing market use remained scarce. Given the circumstances, Payton approached Harlem-based landlords with the opportunity to help fill their uninhabited living quarters with Black renters. Eventually, thousands of Black renters and families established home in the mid-130’s between Fifth and Seventh avenue — in what is now Central Harlem. This movement of Black populations in Harlem set the stage for the decades to follow.
As the growth in the Black Harlem population continued in the 1920s from places like lower Manhattan, the southern U.S. states, and parts of the Caribbean, an artistic and cultural movement grew to highlight the connections between self-expression, creativity, and Black heritage. Harlem specifically became a space for educators, scholars, writers, jazz musicians, singers, dancers, poets and activists like Alain Locke, W.E.B Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Marcus Garvey, Duke Ellington, Alberta Hunter and so many more, who helped to influence human intellectual and spiritual development. Thus, Harlem served as a site of refuge and artistry for those not only in New York City, but across the country. The melding of community, shared identity, art, literature, and movement helped bring forth a level of consciousness to Black circumstances. Many of these themes around Black being, self-expression, and possibility would ring true throughout the decades to follow. Whether it is organizations like the NAACP or movements for civil right protections, the continued legacy of Harlem and the Black cultural movement it spurred, continues to surround the neighborhood to this day. Planet Harlem’s artist, Paul Deo, spent his life surrounded by art and creators in between New York City and New Orleans. As a child, the Apollo Theater served almost as a playground for young Paul to witness Black art in action – from the ranks of James Brown to the Jackson Five. In his mural, the Apollo Theater makes a grand appearance amongst the prominent figures as an architectural backdrop, alongside wide boulevards that feel so Harlem. The Apollo Theater is not only located in the heart of Harlem (on 125th Street) but has been a notable space for Black artists to both grow and share their crafts for others to feel inspired. Paul wondered how as a visual artist he could get on stage at the Apollo. “It’s always been my dilemma, so I created the mural with my name on the marquee.”
Paul believes Planet Harlem serves a similar purpose of embodying the neighborhood’s history of innovation while also encouraging others to follow forth with their own visions. Paul says, “I want to lay out a portal so that people understand they are in charge of their lives. Many people in this mural had a really hard time, but you can see they’re smiling. They didn’t let that stop their vision. I want people to realize it’s all inside you — everything you want to accomplish.” In fact, the updated version of the mural includes mirrors for visitors to catch a reflection of themselves to enlighten a new generation.
On October 20th of 2022, Planet Harlem celebrated its 10 year anniversary with a community centered celebration. The newly updated mural was, yet again, unveiled to the community — this time with a spectacle of a show. There was live music by local New York musician/drummer Todd Tariq Snare. Attendees were not only welcomed by Paul Deo himself, but they had the chance to walk down a red carpet, lined with flowers, aside all the prominent figures in movement on the mural. People danced and reveled in the presence of giants. Paul took the time to honor prominent community members that he recently added to the mural. Some of those honored include: Iesha Sekou, founder/CEO of Street Corner Resources, a Harlem community based public health approach that aims to prevent gun violence. He also honored legendary street basketball player, Joe Hammond. The list of people for Paul to add to Planet Harlem continues to grow.
Paul envisions the mural as a living piece of art. Auressa Moore, Paul’s aunt and one of his biggest inspirations, exposed him to “art that expands beyond the 2D surface”. Therefore, while Paul’s vision for Planet Harlem continues to expand with time, he soon hopes to add augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) components to the mural. These will allow visitors to interact, in real time, with human sized digital avatars of all the figures represented on the mural. According to Paul, this element will allow residents and visitors to really experience the truths, affirmations, and manifestations of each key figure.
As the landscape of Harlem continues to change with growing gentrification and economic shifts, it is important to preserve community art like Planet Harlem. The mural has attracted local residents on a daily basis along with tourists from outside the boundaries of the neighborhood. In 2019, Planet Harlem was featured in New York Magazine‘s 14th annual “Reasons to Love New York,” and was also displayed in an episode of PBS’s The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross. Paul one day hopes that Planet Harlem secures a landmark status. Doing so will allow Harlem’s historical and growing legacy of arts, creativity and Blackness to be preserved, remembered, and seen in all its entirety.
Bibliography
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https://nymag.com/press/2022/12/new-york-magazines-annual-reasons-to-love-new-york -issue.html
Boyd, Herb. The Harlem Reader: A Celebration of New York’s Most Famous Neighborhood, from the Renaissance Years to the Twenty-first Century. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2003.
“Biography”. Paul Deo. Accessed December 5, 2022. http://www.pauldeo.com/about Braun-Reinitz, Janet, and Jane Weissman. On the wall: Four decades of community murals in New York City. New York: Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2009.
“Create A Mural Contest at Corner Social in Harlem.” Harlem World online. n.d. https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2012/11/02/paul-deo-wins-corner-social-mural-compet ition/
“History of Harlem.” Harlem Heritage Tours. Accessed December 10, 2022. https://www.harlemheritage.com/history-of-harlem/
Hutchinson, George. “Harlem Renaissance.” Encyclopedia Britannica. October 6, 2022. https://www.britannica.com/event/Harlem-Renaissance-American-literature-an d-art.
Lewis, David L. When Harlem was in vogue. New York: Penguin Books, 1997. Osofsky, Gilbert. Harlem the Making of a Ghetto : Negro New York 1890-1930. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee. 1996.
“Paul Deo wins Corner Social mural competition.” Amsterdam News online. November 2, 2012. https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2012/11/02/paul-deo-wins-corner-social-mural-compet ition/
Links
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/planet-harlem-mural-augmented-reality/
Nominations
