Meet Dana

Dana is a Harlemite through and through, born in Harlem Hospital in 1990. She says, “...over the course of 33 years, I've had so many different experiences but the heritage, the art, the philanthropy, the history that is Harlem cannot die…So there's a certain energy that this place has that always calls me back to it.” She grew up in Drew Hamilton Houses and attended P.S. 200 (formerly C.S. 200). Dana had a special connection to the school, she explains, “I started there in kindergarten… My teacher was Miss Reddick and she loved me. She was like a second mom to me. Her name was Pauline, and my mother's name is Pauline… [She] used to take me on the weekends to go spend time with her and her family. And… everybody in that school just really respected the children… Respected the creativity, the intellect, our knowingness, and our understanding of ourselves…” 

There are places in Harlem that ground her and remind her of memories growing up including the Hudson River, Schomburg Theater, the YMCA on 135th, Jackie Robinson Park, and Melba's. Harlem has provided her with a multitude of experiences and core memories within the community. Thinking of her childhood two memories stand out, “The rodeo on 145th in Lenox Park. It used to come every summer when I was… teeny tiny and my daddy would take me and put me on his shoulders… And… I danced in the [African American Day parade] in, like, 2000… I just feel like being able to live here and really living is a blessing.”

“...To know that Harlem welcomed me back home when I first got here, I thanked her… I call her ‘her’ because she births things… I have such a respect for this place… I just feel grounded and I feel aligned, and I’m grateful to have this opportunity to experience her in a way that I did not when I first lived [here].”

Dana started braiding hair at nine years old and had a summer youth job from 12 to 18 before she went to college. Feeling burned out, she wanted to go away for school. Dana studied at North Carolina Central University in 2009, then came back to Harlem before moving again in 2014. “I was gone for ten years. I lived in North Carolina, I lived in Atlanta, I lived in Houston and in D.C.. And no matter where I go, Harlem always calls me. So when I came back this time, it was… for myself, for my soul… I've just kind of been allowing myself to really connect to the energy that is Harlem.” Now living in Riverside with her godsister, she is excited for this next stage in her life. She is focusing on recentering as she sets on this new phase, “I left here when I started my life. I worked up the corporate ladder… I moved up to become the vice president of learning and development for an e-commerce automotive company… I transitioned to another place and developed and created that. What I've created most recently, I'm launching from here. And it just feels so good… to step into entrepreneurship, to step into the wholeness of myself, to step into the elevation of my mind and my spirit and the healing of my body in my home place is rich… And to know that Harlem welcomed me back home when I first got here, I thanked her… I call her ‘her’ because she births things…  I have such a respect for this place. I'm not staying here. I'm a Sagittarius. I got to get outside,” she jokes. “But Harlem knows that. Harlem birthed me. She [knew] I wasn't staying here… So I just feel grounded and I feel aligned, and I'm grateful to have this opportunity to experience her in a way that I did not when I first lived [here].” 

Although Dana has lived in several other places, she says the experiences are “incomparable” to Harlem, “And the reason is because of the culture... People come here so that they can gain freedom… And that energy of ‘please save me’, rests in New York City and rests in Harlem, where people are moving from other countries… It's kind of like a base. Remember playing tag when [you were] little? …People are coming to the concrete jungle that is New York City because they want a different experience for generations following them… We got Little Italy, we got Chinatown. These are immigrants who came here and created and established lives for the people who come behind them. And there's no other place, to me, that's doing that.” The community and people of Harlem have supported her through the different stages in her life, “We love like no other place… Because we get it. When you've struggled and you've had hardship and you've hustled, you get it… So the relationships stand on a foundation that is of support and of understanding and compassion…” Harlem is a large part of the person she is, “She turned me into a beast. I'm not gonna lie… You cannot tell me nothing, at all, about who I am, what I am, whose I am, or where I come from… It's a certain level of this confidence… I've been through the fire, so there's no pressure you could put on me. I'm a diamond… And that's Harlem. Harlem shows you opportunity. Harlem gives you access and… expresses things to you and when you allow that to permeate you, it becomes you. So when I walk this earth, baby, they know who I am. I don't have to say nothing… They know who I am, and that's because of Harlem.”