a journey into Harlem, to follow traces of pieces of Black American history and in particular Afro-American Islam. Masjid Malcolm Shabaz, the Nation of Islam mosque which Malcolm X once lead. the story of Betty X Shabbaz, Malcolm X (Shabbaz)’s widow, who died in the late 1990s when her home was set on fire by her teenage grandson, Malcolm, leaves us with a taste of the desintegration of that political legacy. we talk briefly with some people sitting outside of the mosque, to get a sense of what the mosque does (real estate! at first we laugh with how “american” this is, but of course in a city like new york this is crucial to a community…) and who the community is today, but we don’t get much of an idea. the image of the grandson Malcolm setting the house on fire dominates my thoughts. when later on we go to find Harlem’s Liberation bookstore – the store closed down, the building in scaffolds. such a sad sight. the struggle to survive, the pressure, the burn out (ay, the grandson pops up again…)…
a delicious meal at Amy Ruth’s Home-Style Southern Cuisine, eventhough we definately get many things wrong – the belgians ask for mayonnaise (hm, just for the record, i was perfectly happy with ketchup, its the other one who insisted…) and the non-southerners eat their fried chicken with fork and knife…