Meet Winter
Living in Harlem all of her life, Winter has developed a profound connection to the community. Multiple generations of her family were raised in Harlem and continue to live in the neighborhood, “My great grandmother was in Harlem, and then she had her family… My grandmother was raised here, but then she got married and moved to Long Island and had my mother and her siblings there. And then they moved back years [later], but they moved to live with my great grandmother who still had the apartment… Then she passed away, and… my grandmother kept the apartment, and then my mother lived in the same building as her mother.”
Growing up in Harlem was a very communal experience, “Harlem is so deep... I want to say [my experience is] typical to every person that grew up here. I think there's a commonality of… what we experience because Harlem was such a community, and so… there was that common thread of experiences that ran through. But it was fun... I was able to really enjoy my childhood and really be a child and play with my friends and be outside a lot… Everyone knew each other. We all knew each other's families. We would spend time with not only our friends, but their cousins and their sisters and their brothers and their aunties and their uncles and the neighbor next door would watch all of the little kids for the families… while they went to work. So it was a real strong sense of community.” Winter was raised on the West Side of Harlem, “I went to elementary school in Harlem… And then I went… [to school in what] would be considered the Upper West Side, so it's not technically Harlem, like, below 96th street… That gave me the contrast between Harlem and another part of Manhattan that certain people I knew… didn't really experience on a regular basis. And for me, it was going back and forth every day for school.”
“Harlem is so deep... I think there’s a commonality of… what we experience because Harlem was such a community, and so… there was that common thread of experiences that ran through. But it was fun... I was able to really enjoy my childhood and really be a child...”
She created memories throughout her neighborhood and recalls her favorite places fondly, “The playground. My neighborhood… When I say neighborhood, I mean… [the] five block radius, St. Nicholas Park… It starts on 128th, and then it goes up to [about] 145th… The whole park, that area is amazing. I still find it amazing. All the playgrounds.” One of her favorite childhood experiences was getting ice cream with her dad, “There weren't many ice cream shops. I think there were a couple of… Baskin Robbins that had come up and then closed… My dad used to take me for ice cream at… these local places…” Winter would often go shopping with her mother and grandmother as well. She says, “When I was little, we used to go to… Woolworth… on 125th street, and we've always been foodies, so [we’d enjoy]... what was local.” Winter has learned about Harlem through her family as well, through pictures and stories shared by relatives. Her father sang as a hobby and performed in many iconic nightclubs in Harlem, “[He sang in] The Cotton Club and Birds of Paradise and just some other really amazing places. Lenox Lounge, all those... Harlem staples.” She remembers watching him perform in some spaces, and values being able to be a part of that experience. In her young adulthood she enjoyed the new nightlife in Harlem herself, “It was fun and still in community. So it's like the same people that you socialize with at home or on the block… So it was amazing.”
Community has been a throughline through her Harlem story, “I feel like community is… who we are as a people… When you live somewhere for so long and you're around other people that have lived in that place for just as long, I think it just naturally emerges. And then if you have… commonality or shared ideas and things, [it] just brings people together even more.” Winter describes Harlem as “thoughtful, protective, welcoming, and authentic.” She says, “[Harlem has contributed to me having] a strong sense of knowing who I am and knowing who my people are… Who I can turn to and vice versa... Because of the strong… identity [and] strong support system, it gave me the courage to go outside of Harlem as well and feel secure.” She knows she always has a home with Harlem, “I will always be a Harlemite… It doesn't matter where I go or where I end up living… Harlem… will always be a part of who I am.”
She teaches mindfulness and meditation and is also a doula and breath specialist, “With those practices and my love for families… I wrote my first children's book, which is an interactive book that allows children to experience art with their families... or care providers. [It] also incorporates… mindfulness and meditation and breath work as well.” Her desire to go down this path started after she had her first son, “I started a music and movement program in 2007 here in Harlem. And once I started that, I realized I wanted to reach families before their kids were toddlers. I actually wanted to reach them, like, right when the mom gave birth. So I could really start helping with that transition into… parenthood… so that led me into… working as a doula. And then at the same time, I was also introduced to mindfulness meditation and yoga. And so once I developed my practice in that, I decided I wanted to teach.”
The arts were a large part of her interests as a child, “I'm grateful I was able to take ballet and… be exposed to different experiences of… arts and sports and water skiing and canoeing and all sorts of things. And then also [seeing my dad]... perform.” She feels Harlem has a unique way of giving an artist space to develop their individuality, “Harlem is able to… hold an artist or allows an artist to build their own… sense of self so that they can deliver their art [and] feel confident in expressing themselves.” When asked about what she looks forward to in Harlem she says, “I remember being younger and learning about [the] Harlem Renaissance and what that was, and I think there's always been a part of me that's been… wanting to have some similar experience… It was something that the people in Harlem built. And for that to happen again, it's gonna have to be for the people in Harlem to build it.' And so I'm looking forward to what we build.”