Meet Danielle
Moving to Harlem was the start of a personal renaissance for Danielle. She is originally from Baltimore and has lived in Harlem for five years, New York for 10, “I was working in beauty at the time, and I moved here to work in… TV and print and digital as a makeup artist first… Before that, I worked in marketing, and so I worked as a makeup artist, but I also had… a passion for selling and marketing and storytelling. And so I… combined my love of makeup with my love of marketing and went into corporate beauty.” After working in QVC for a while, she transitioned to digital and brand marketing before transitioning again to “director of comms role for a nonprofit.”
Danielle has always been a forward thinker, especially in her career. She first started doing makeup with the goal of gaining a different perspective when going back into the corporate arena. She explains, “Because selling beauty products to consumers is different [from] selling beauty products to professionals, which is different [from] selling beauty products when you segment that out, are they doing TV? Are they doing print? …So I had this really unique kind of understanding of all aspects of the beauty product once you put it in somebody's hands versus their kit… I was like, ‘This is fun, and I'm good at it, but this is research, and I know I'm gonna use this in a different way.’” Her marketing skills truly began as a child, “When I was seven, my first business I ever ran… I would come downstairs… and sell my toys. I put a little table up, and then the sales were slow. And so, like, little forward thinking Danielle was like, ‘You got to change your model. You got to go to the customer.’ So I'm… knocking on my neighbor's doors…” Her interests started young and continued to develop with time, “I've always wanted to sell things. I've always wanted to be in community with people… And I just think the through line has always been… persuasion [and] the art of communication. I've been pretty verbal my whole life. I talk a lot… [I] have the report cards to prove that,” she laughs.
“I wanted to live in Harlem… because culturally, there’s really no better place to be as a Black person… It is just so culturally rich. And every single time I come out of my building, I feel like I run into an auntie… There’s nothing better than being surrounded by Black folks, you know?”
Remarking on what drew her specifically to Harlem she says, “I wanted to live in Harlem… because culturally, there's really no better place to be as a Black person… It is just so culturally rich. And every single time I come out of my building, I feel like I run into an auntie… There's nothing better than being surrounded by Black folks, you know?” Her first day in her building is a vivid memory and set the tone for her experience in Harlem, “I moved into my new apartment, and there was a block party. It was August… and I'm laying on this couch. It's empty… I'm starving… And I just remember laying there and… just listening to the neighborhood. And coming from a place like the Heights… that's a culturally rich place, too… But I'm not of that particular culture. It's… beautiful to watch, but you're an outsider looking in at people having these beautiful traditions. And the first day I moved into Harlem, I was like, this is that for me. It's like, ‘That's Marvin Gaye. I know that song. I don't know those people who are outside right now, but I know those people.’” She felt a sense of a community instantly that has continued to build with time, “It felt like I was sort of where I was supposed to be.” Within her building and through exploring the neighborhood she has been able to create bonds within and to Harlem, “I feel like I can talk to my neighbor... the whole ride down the elevator about what's new and what's next for her… The man on the street [that sells his things], I don't even know what building he lives in in the complex, but we talk every single day. He's like, 'You always changing your look.' And I'm like, 'It's summer. You're not gonna see that pixie. You're gonna see variations of protective styles for the next two months,'” she laughs.
The energy in Harlem is palpable at all times and it is one of things Danielle loves the most about Harlem. And the people create the energy, “The people who are… native to Harlem… are tied to all of the other people that made Harlem the thing to be when people were migrating up… So you can't shake what your great great grandmother and them put in the sauce… I’m from Baltimore City, we know what it's like to see a city not look like it looked when you grew up in it, but that doesn't really change the core.” She says, “And to be transparent… there's always a juxtaposition of how beautiful it is here. And also, like, these really kind of tough reminders about all of the trauma, all of the things that people are grappling with and how they're managing themselves through that. You can't have a conversation without… acknowledging that… All those things are a part of this place, but the place is magical, regardless of all the things that we're all managing our way through.”
“I feel like I have been so many versions of myself and… the ones that I’m really looking at and taking kind of notes from, [are from] the last five years. I’ve experienced so much transformation… And I’ve really been able to come into my own in a beautiful way.”
Harlem has not only been great for her, but for her daughter as well, “When we moved here, [my daughter] was four… I love raising a kid in New York, and I love raising her in Harlem because there are experiences that she's having that I had to be an adult to have. You know, there's a level of autonomy I can give her. While I am anxiously tracking her location… But there's a level of… autonomy I can give her just because… she's never alone up here. You know, she can walk down and meet me for lunch during a work from home day, and… I'm not concerned about that, because… there is a community.” Continuing to lay her roots in Harlem for herself and her daughter is what she looks forward to the most, “Well… this is gonna get cheesy, but I have experienced a personal renaissance in Harlem, in particular for a number of different reasons… Moving into my apartment in Harlem was the first time I had set up a house that was just for me and for my daughter. It was the first time I had designed a space… First time, I was… fully responsible for the energy in the home, all mine, all hers. And that kicked off the renaissance for me. Like, I am actually a new person because I got to come here and start again... I started again in Harlem, you know? And… I'm proud of that.” She says, “I feel like I have been so many versions of myself and… the ones that I'm really looking at and taking kind of notes from, [are from] the last five years. I've experienced so much transformation… And I've really been able to come into my own in a beautiful way.”
