Meet A. Love
For the past 8 years, A. Love has lived in and around Harlem, “I always come back to Harlem after I leave… I love Harlem. It's like a huge neighborhood, but it still feels… small enough to navigate it all… I love walking. So you can walk around… the entire Harlem.” They first moved to New York about ten years ago when a birthday trip turned into A. Love falling in love with New York and deciding this was where they needed to be. A. Love explains the whirlwind of events, saying, "I came for my birthday once, and I was like, I'm gonna… get an Airbnb. Nobody was able to come with me. I was like, 'I'm gonna take a trip by myself.'” A. Love decided to go to New York after receiving a free roundtrip ticket from Greyhound from being a frequent traveler, “And I came to New York, and I was like, 'Oh, yeah, I love this.' So then I came back… [around] three weeks later and rented out the same Airbnb… And I'm like, 'Look, girl… I'm staying now… I got a job. I don't have any money, but I can give you my entire first check. I need to be here.' And the Airbnb owner] was like, 'Okay.' So that was the only person that I knew… And then she quickly turned her Airbnb into, like, a hostel… But I loved it, though.” A. Love was able to meet many different people from across the world through that experience. As unconventional as it was, they look back on it as a great experience.
A. Love moved to New York without knowing anyone, making a very bold move for their career as a makeup artist. The risk paid off and A. Love’s career has grown exponentially since moving here, “So I left Sephora [about] five years ago… But now I travel… I have an agent and a manager, so now I work on… tv and film and fashion and stuff like that.” A. Love attributes this growth to being open to different opportunities, “People always… have… afforded me… different experiences. They're always like, ‘Come here… See this. Try this. Do this…’ And… in the back of my head, I'm like, you don't see these things for no reason… Like, this is all for you… But I'm also a very patient person… It's all mine, but… in the right time.” Despite things working out for the best, A. Love would not recommend moving somewhere where you don’t know anyone, “It was crazy… But… for me… it was a risk that I just had to take… I had to move for more opportunities in my career… Back then, I thought that… being at Sephora was, like, the pinnacle of being a makeup artist… I was there for a few years, and I loved it, but it was… being in retail… Everything just catapulted me to a different realm… Now I'm just in a mode of being more intentional…”
“I always come back to Harlem after I leave… I love Harlem. It’s like a huge neighborhood, but it still feels… small enough to navigate it all… I love walking. So you can walk around… the entire Harlem.”
Originally from Wisconsin, the community and small neighborhood feel of Harlem was something A. Love instantly loved, “It's less coming and going, but it's still definitely in the city… I'm from the Midwest, so it's completely different than what it is back home. And I think about… if I bought a place here, I have a huge family, and they don't travel as much. So… being able to have something where they can come to New York and… being able to offer that space to my family… [would be nice].” A. Love enjoys taking walks through Harlem which has been a source of connection to the community, “I love walking around. I'm always going somewhere. I'm always doing something. I'm always out of the house, so… I'm connected to these streets… I'm connected to these paths… I feel like I know exactly where I am all the time, but I'm always seeing something new, so it's always exciting.” A. Love describes Harlem, saying, “I would say it's very, very cultural in a sense… Harlem is very Black, which I love. But it's also very small… It's like people are new here, and it's a lot of coming and going, but not as much as Midtown… But it's also… a sense of people who have been here for so long, and I feel like it's a respect for the people and the history that have been here for a long time.”
Harlem has been filled with unique and fun memories, A. Love recalls, “One of my clients, she lives in Jersey, and she is just a very interesting person… One night we were going out, and… she's in her sixties. She's like, ‘We're going out… We probably had a couple drinks… we were both going through [breakups] at that time. And we were… on the West Side Highway, like, underneath the bridge. It used to be… a restaurant, but there's a little… marina there…” They sat there and had a great time together, ranting, getting their emotions out, and created a memory they won’t soon forget. “She had the best time of her life. And… we took pictures… And now every time we see each other, I'm always bringing up [the photos]… And then we… walked around… from there to the Apollo… And I'm like, it's just Harlem. Harlem is fun. You know? It was hilarious.”
“I would say it’s very, very cultural in a sense… Harlem is very Black, which I love. But it’s also very small… It’s like people are new here, and it’s a lot of coming and going, but not as much as Midtown…”
“I guess I can sum it up and say it's Harlem or nothing. I'm always like that… I have two friends… that are roommates of mine and they're always going out in Brooklyn. I'm like, 'No, I'm not going. Like, y'all are tripping… We might as well just move to Brooklyn,' you know what I mean? But I'm like, 'I'm not moving. So… y'all can do [that]...’” Although A. Love enjoys moving around, as time passes the idea of settling down is more desirable, “Now as I'm getting older… I like the sense of… having some type of stability. And being in one place and being kind of grounded, because that way you get to work on other things. Like, you're not always working on saving money and looking for a new place and furnishing and decorating it… So I like it, but now… it's time to find my next place for the next few years.” And A. Love would like to do so in Harlem, to one day own a brownstone. Setting personal goals is what motivates A. Love; having something to look forward to continues to push them to greater heights. What is clear is that A. Love loves Harlem and awaits continued growth within and for the community as well as for themselves, personally and professionally.
