Meet Kim
Kim has been a Harlem resident for 20 years working on Broadway as a dresser, “...It started with a good friend saving me from not having a place to live and being welcomed into this building where there are Broadway performers and always people singing…” She was moving from Queens when her friend, an actor she had dressed on the show Smokey Joes, shared there was an opening in his building, an HDFC. She visited the apartment, saw it was newly renovated, and took it with excitement. “It was welcoming and… a beautiful experience… It’s a nice community we have in my building… [and a] loving place to live… The people that live around me are just lovely…”
In her building, everyone looks out for one another. “I, in my earlier years, got on the back of a motorcycle of someone I had just met at a bar and drove on up. And [a friend of one of the building owners] was standing there at the door and he saw me get off the motorcycle with someone he didn’t recognize. And he stood there [with his arms crossed] and then he opened the door and said ‘Kim, are you alright?’ And I’m like ‘Oh! Hey, yeah, I gotta go’”, she jokingly mimics her frazzled voice saying goodbye to the biker. “So this guy [who I don’t know well], but… was in the building… was absolutely looking after me when I had made a stupid, stupid, decision…”
“...It started with a good friend saving me from not having a place to live and being welcomed into this building where there are Broadway performers and always people singing… It was welcoming and… a beautiful experience… It’s a nice community we have in my building… [and a] loving place to live… The people that live around me are just lovely…”
She has a few favorite places in Harlem, living near Central Park, the conservatory gardens is one of them. “The Meer, that whole area, I mean it's under construction right now, but it’s so beautiful. And… the gardens, you have the pool… you have the… jazz that plays. And, that’s kind of, for me ‘cause I’m down at this end… [the] best place for me. The most loving and fun place...”
Kim has been able to find community locally, “...It’s nice to go to [places] like 67 Orange or the smaller places where you can actually chat with people. That’s been kind of the… greatest way to meet people for me…. And… over the summer, where all the restaurants got to be outside. I haven’t done that as much but… what a great way to really meet people. Where you’re sitting down and you can chat with people around you.” She looks forward to making new connections.