The 51st annual Harlem Week celebration is set to take place from August 1–17 with the theme “Celebrate Our Dream.” The series of events will continue to focus on unity and the cultural legacy of Harlem during a period of uncertainty in America.
“We thought it was important to look at that theme to inspire, as Harlem Week has always done, first and foremost the Harlem community and those in Harlems around the world to really celebrate us and celebrate our magic,” said Marko Nobles, vice chair of Harlem Week.
Harlem Week was created out of the historic Harlem Day event in 1974 with several major Black figures in politics, art, and culture in the neighborhood at the time, including then-Manhattan borough President Percy Sutton, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Harry Belafonte, Charlie Rangel, Rev. Wyatt T Walker, and others. The aim was to support economic empowerment and uplift the community, which had been facing several hardships, as had the entire city. It soon expanded to several events through the summer and become known as Harlem Week, which honored its 50th anniversary in 2024.
While Harlem has been known as the capital of African American culture, Nobles said Harlem Week has always celebrated all the cultures that have made up the community.
“What people don’t realize is that Harlem has always been a multicultural community; it’s just that it’s not focused on as much. There are some 90 different cultures that have always been in Harlem and called Harlem home.”
Nobles has been involved in Harlem Week for most of his life — since he was 14 — and professionally since 1983.
Some of the signature events attendees look forward to each summer include Senior Citizens Day, Health Summit, Children’s Festival, Economic Empowerment Day, and the Fashion Show. The final weekend and third Saturday and Sunday for Harlem Week always features “Summer in the City,” followed by “Harlem Day,” in which 135th Street is blocked off for the activities.
This year, there will be several tributes to Harlem figures Charles Rangel and Hazel Dukes, who were both significant in the lineage of Harlem Week over the years. The first of these, on August 9, will be the NYC Family Walk, which will be renamed the Hazel Dukes Memorial Health Walk beginning this year, as a tribute to Dukes and her legacy with both health advocacy and the walk itself.
During Harlem Day on August 17, there will be a public tribute to both Rangel and Dukes on the 5th Avenue main stage between 5th and Lenox, which is also next to the historic Lenox Terrace complex, where both lived until their deaths. Rangel was famously known as “The Lion of Lenox,” having been born on the avenue, now co-named Malcolm X Boulevard, a few blocks down on 132nd Street. He recently died at Harlem Hospital (135th between Lenox and Adam Clayton Powell).
Nobles said that over the years, Rangel would sit on his terrace at the building and enjoy the festivities when he wasn’t involved otherwise.
This year’s celebration comes when the new Trump administration has invoked a massive crackdown on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in grants and other institutions that promote Black culture and history. Several corporations have chosen to end their DEI programs in response. Nobles said there has been a difference in access to finances and resources, and without naming anyone in particular, that certain sponsors with whom they partnered with just last year are no longer working with them as a result of the Trump crackdown.
“There is a different way that we’ve had to maneuver as we look at the sponsorship or the support level to produce Harlem Week, considering that it is a free event,” Nobles said.
According to Nobles, the mission has remained the same and the group is looking to build intergenerational connections
In recent years, organizations like TheSoapBoxPresents have garnered attention for their series of outdoor block party music concerts throughout Harlem. Nobles said they have created a new partnership with them as well as other Harlem-based groups like Sundae Sermon, a not-for-profit promoting live music, and Image Nation, an arts and media company, among others.
For more info and the updated Harlem Week schedule, visit harlemweek.com.