Harlem
Americannoun
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a section of New York City, in the NE part of Manhattan.
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a tidal river in New York City, between the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx, which, with Spuyten Duyvil Creek, connects the Hudson and East rivers. 8 miles (13 km) long.
noun
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During the 1920s, Harlem was the site of a great upsurge in black literature, music, and theater known as the Harlem Renaissance.
Mostly populated by African-Americans, Harlem has long been a center of black culture.
The area now contains a large Puerto Rican population and, after a period of economic decay, has experienced a revitalization.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Originally composed by Waller for a Harlem revue called “Connie’s Hot Chocolate,” it moved to Broadway with Louis Armstrong performing the rousing trumpet solo.
The idea of history being celebrated and preserved courses through “Once Upon a Time in Harlem,” a conversational documentary belatedly assembled from a 1972 gathering of Harlem Renaissance giants at Duke Ellington’s apartment.
From Los Angeles Times
Irene, proudly black, is married to a black doctor and lives in Harlem in New York City.
Both a discovery and a reemergence, “Once Upon a Time in Harlem” is like a time machine moving in multiple directions at once.
From Los Angeles Times
The Harlem Renaissance produced stars like Aaron Douglas, shown here not in his famous murals addressing freedom, but in small, angular block prints illustrating Eugene O’Neill’s play “The Emperor Jones,” about a black murderer.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.