Joseph Holland, attorney, entrepreneur, and longtime Harlem community activist, is at BEA to promote his book on Harlem history, From Harlem with Love: An Ivy Leaguer’s Inner-City Odyssey (Lantern Books).
Billed as part memoir and part political history, the book chronicles Holland’s 30 years of community service in Harlem, which came after his years of privilege: growing up on the campus of Virginia’s Hampton Institute as the son of the college’s president; living abroad when his father, Jerome H. Holland, was appointed U.S. ambassador to Sweden; becoming an all-American football player at Cornell University, like his father; and attending Harvard Law School. But instead of climbing the corporate ladder at the Wall Street law firm where he worked, he chose to follow his dream of going to Harlem—where he’d never lived—and serving his people.
Because Holland is also a playwright, actor, and politician (he served as New York State housing commissioner from 1995 to 1996), “The history is seen through multiple lenses; because I had those experiences, I was able to tell the story with some insight.”
Although this is Holland’s first time at BEA, it’s not his first book. That was a self-published life-skills handbook called Holistic Hardware: Tools that Build Lives, based on the highly successful community service program he developed in the 1980s for HARKhomes, the Harlem homeless shelter he ran for 12 years.
It took Holland “a couple of years” to find the right publisher for From Harlem with Love. “My agent was sending it to big publishers, but this was a memoir and I’m a relative unknown.” When big houses passed on it, he approached small independents. “Lantern is a hands-on publisher—Martin Rowe, the head, called me directly, and we had a really productive conversation. Not only had he thoroughly read my manuscript but Lantern publishes social justice titles, and even though this was a memoir, they were excited about it. It was important to me to have a publisher take it seriously and give it the editorial and other attention it deserved. And one of the things that happened with Lantern is that we’re now talking about reissuing Holistic Hardware.”
We couldn’t resist asking Holland to recommend some Harlem spots to BEA visitors. “Sylvia’s—328 Malcolm X Blvd., near 126th Street; I went there when I first arrived in the ’80s, and I’m still going now. It’s touristy, but the other places are no longer around. For those who enjoy the traditional, there’s so much Harlem flavor in the place. Melba’s—300 W. 114th St. [at Frederick Douglass Boulevard]—also soul food but with more of a nouveau flavor. Mobay—17 W. 125th St., near Fifth Avenue, for Caribbean food. The Studio Museum in Harlem—144 W. 125th St., near Seventh Avenue. But my favorite spot is Hue-Man Bookstore, 2319 Frederick Douglass Blvd., near 124th Street—it has this amazing array of cultural books and literature and a cafe.”
