1. HOME
WELCOME TO MY WEBSITE!
I am a musician, an ethnomusicologist, a Harlem historian, a social and cultural activist, a meditator and a New Thought spiritual practitioner. Click the links to your right to read about my various activities and thoughts and to hear or purchase my music. Click the links at the bottom of each page to leave a comment. Thanks for visiting!
My new book Walking Harlem: The Cultural Capital of Black America, 100 years of art, politics and history will be published by Rutgers University Press in Spring 2018!
Harlem, 1943 (photographer, Roger Smith)
About this tour guidebook:
Walking Harlem traces the musical, literary, visual arts, dance and socio-political developments in Harlem from c. 1919 to the present with a focus on the 1920s-1930s Harlem Renaissance. The book draws from numerous sources including historical and out of print text, newspapers, record liner notes and film to focus on the cultural, arts and political developments of African Americans in Harlem and it links this information to five self-guided walking tours. The author’s background as an ethnomusicologist is evident in a focus on music venues that have often been overlooked in previous researches.
About the author
Karen Taborn moved to Harlem, NY in the early 1980s and has lived in the neighborhood for over 30 years. From 1991 to 1994 she served as the historical and cultural consultant for the Strivers Center Project–a landscape and cultural revitalization project in Central Harlem that culminated in the Harlem Walk of Fame on West 135th Street between Frederick Douglass and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevards (Seventh and Eighth Avenues). Ms. Taborn holds two consecutive masters degrees in jazz and ethnomusicology. She has taught Harlem history in NYC colleges and universities and given presentations on Harlem at various public and private institutions.
Drop me an email to get on my mailing list and be informed when the book is out. karentaborn@gmail.com.
Follow me on Twitter: @KarenFaye1
