Today’s Story from Uncle Ro: “When Dinah Lit Up Lenox”
(Harlem Untold, July 6)
Now let me tell y’all somethin’…
It was 1957. The air was thick with heat, jazz, and shea butter. And baby, Dinah Washington had just finished a set at the Baby Grand on 125th — one of them nights where the notes hit different. Folks still buzzin’ from the show drifted down Lenox Ave like a tide of silk and sweat, when boom — the power cut out.
Whole block went dark.
But you know what Dinah did?
She stepped outta that club in heels sharper than a landlord’s tongue, lit a cigarette, and — I swear on my good knee — she sang “This Bitter Earth” right there under a streetlamp like it was the Met Opera. Ain’t nobody made a sound. No band. No mic. Just Harlem holding its breath. A moment so sacred the street itself leaned in.
Harlem don’t just make stars. We make altars out of sidewalks.
“Uncle Ro”
