About Toya

Toya From Harlem headshot

Toya From Harlem is a community curator who loves history, Black Art and Culture and cultural conversations. As a native New Yorker, Latoya went to Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. Go Wes! After, graduating with a BA in African American studies she moved back to NYC, worked a little bit and decided to go back to school. In 2013,  she joined National Urban Fellows, where she completed a Masters in Public Administration through Baruch College in 14 months.

While completing her Master's program she lived in Miami, experiencing some Miami heat and then returned to the concrete jungle of New York City in the summer of 2014. From 2014 until 2018, Toya helped run the graduate program at New York University, although she was always more interested in Black history, art and culture and creating content. Since 2014, Toya lived in this state of duality where she worked for the man from 9 to 5 and pursued her passion after work and on the weekends. In her spare time, Toya reads a lot of books by writers of color, is a tattoo enthusiast, Googles history stuff and shops/promotes Black-owned businesses.

She also sketches, does photography, gets a lot of tattoos and works out. She is not that great at sketching or consistently working out, but she finds them therapeutic.After too many cold winters in NYC, numerous train delays and running into too many people from her childhood, Toya has picked up her stuff and moved to LA.On January 7th, 2019, Toya arrived in LA. Stay tuned for her Brown girl adventures in LA-mixed in with the same Black art and culture she is known to provide.

How it all started

In August 2014, Toya was fresh out of grad school, broke and confused and STILL in her momma’s crib. Born and bred in Harlem, she noticed there were a lot of changes in my community. Fancy new places were popping up and washing out some of the history and culture that makes Harlem, so Harlem. She decided to create something she was passionate about that blended these two worlds (the old and new Harlem)-from that Toya From Harlem was Birth in September 2014. This blog is a place where Toya shares her experiences, fears, explorations and most importantly my community.

TOYA FROM HARLEM IS DEDICATED TO

PRESERVING the rich history of people of color in communities experience gentrification

HIGHLIGHTING entrepreneurs and change agents

PROMOTING local Black-owned businesses

SHARING my crazy adventures in Harlem & beyond.

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Blessings and welcome to all the new folks that have joined. I know many of you are here because my friends and platforms are amplifying Black voices due to the recent events and injustices (though they're recent, they're nothing new). Black joy, Black history, Black businesses are celebrated here 365/24/7. So let me introduce myself...⁣ 🖤⁣ My name is Toya, aka your #HistorianHomie, and I built this platform to provide resources for millennials of color who want to learn more about our history and art & culture without the boring pretentious language or the common snooze fest textbook topics. #ThatWasntInMyTextbook⁣ 🖤🖤🖤⁣ Born and raised in Harlem, my elementary and middle schools were predominately Black spaces for Black children, with Black teachers, (RARE I know.) Fast forward, I went away for high school, college and graduate school. In that span of time, my favorite Black-owned stores, restaurants, and bakeries disappeared. So in 2014, I decided to create this platform as a digital archive for all the places that was being erased in the name of gentrification. This is also a digital space for POCs to learn more about their history adding to their joy and pride. ⁣ ⁣ Since then, my platform has expanded to covering communities all over the world, not just Harlem- because let's be honest, gentrification and cultural erasure is happening everywhere. ⁣ 🖤🖤🖤⁣ Toya From Harlem is where you will uncover historical places you pass by everyday, books to read, dope art by people of color, safe POC places to check out and cultural things to do- oh my life is sprinkled in here as well. Essentially, I'm the Anthony Bourdain of history.⁣ ⁣ I compel you to:⁣ * Support Black-owned businesses, creatives, etc. even after the dust has settled⁣ * Support, vote, donate to the efforts to abolish white supremacy and change the conditions, under which Black people live in this world⁣ ⁣ Stay tuned, tap in, listen, understand & spell Black with a Capital B ✊🏽⁣ ⁣ Also I now live in LA- it's 'from'Harlem, not 'in' Harlem. 🤪- #ToyaFromHarlem #ifyoureadthiswholethingyouretherealmvp