Sugar Hill Creamery

We can’t wait to see you this weekend at ! We’ve partnered with to bring you a completely vegan dessert (swipe to see, read it below) exclusive to the festival, plus a selection of your favorite flavors.

🍠☁️ G. W. Carver’s Wildest Dream ☁️🍠

Enjoy Cloudy Donut’s sweet potato pound cake served with our Ethiopian vegan coffee ice cream, topped with house-made sweet potato caramel, and a brûlée tuile.

October 2024 Program Calendar

📌Saturday, October 5th, 2pm-4pm
🎨Free First Saturday Art Class at Sugar Hill Creamery with

📌Monday, October 7th, 2pm-4pm
🤰🏽Expecting Moms Support Group! Your Creative Journey to Motherhood

📌Tuesday, October 8th, 7-8:30PM
🧶Knit Night

📌Tuesday, October 17th, 10-11:30AM
👩🏽‍🍼Sugar Hill Creamery New Mom’s Group

Visit the Community page on our website to register.

Around 2008, Donjai began his journey in Harlem as an artist and community member connecting people throughout the neighborhood. “I spent a bulk of my life in Hunts Point… We moved to Hunts Point in 1990, and then around 2008, I started to come back around Harlem. I worked in a Harlem Market. A couple years after that, [I] wound up getting an apartment [on the East Side].” He had friends throughout Harlem from high school who embraced him and helped create ties to the community. Through working at Harlem Market he created bonds and connections that helped him professionally as a photographer as well.

Harlem became his “foundation”, “My personal story, [is] like… the Peter Pan, Never Never Land complex, it’s kind of like a place I ran away to so I wouldn’t grow up, in a sense… I think Harlem kind of preserved my youth. It definitely… put an emphasis on what having fun looked like. It definitely put an emphasis on being a creator and then making that journey to being a business minded creative. Because Harlem is like [the] home of the hustlers… I remember working in the [Harlem] market one time and somebody hiring me… to take photos, and they didn’t like the photos, but… they wanted the photos and… their money back. It was just like, I got hustled… I think it’s a feeling that kind of levels you up… Sometimes it can either shelter you or compel you to go harder… So I’m glad I got some of those lessons in Harlem…”

He says, “I found a way [in Harlem] by just having a vision and… being useful... When I was younger, doing photography, I didn’t want to make money. I just wanted to take pictures. As an adult… certain things panned out where it’s like, ‘Alright… this is what you love to do. You’re going to be able to do what you love and make a living off it.’ And I think Harlem really put that in perspective.”

To read the extended version of Donjai’s story, subscribe to our newsletter through our website, sugarhillcreamery.com. Donjai’s story goes live at 9 AM.

Read past Harlemites stories on our website under the ‘Community’ tab.

Born in Harlem Hospital and living in Harlem her entire life, Nerrissa J. has ties to the community that remain strong. She grew up in St. Nicholas Houses. Her grandfather was one of the first people to move into the building and his apartment has been passed down through generations to Nerrissa’s daughter and her child. Nerrissa is a social worker, entrepreneur, author, mother, and proud Harlemite who strives to give back to the community with her business, I Self Express Too.

Growing up, her building felt like family, “Everybody in the building knew everybody and it was like, if you step out of line, oh, no, I can chastise you. My mother’s okay with that. My father’s okay with that… It was more family oriented. You could depend on your neighbors... ‘You have some sugar? Can I get an egg?’” She remembers the park that was next to her building where everyone would go, saying, “We went out there to dance. We went out to jump rope. We played hopscotch. Like, we did all these fun things that kids today, they know nothing about. You know, being a part of a dance group, I was the choreographer. We were called Strictly Business. And we would just dance all over the place… [including the Cotton Club].” She recalls always going to A&P that was on 123rd Street and 8th Avenue and stopping by the Lucy’s on the corner. And of course, she looks back fondly on memories made with her mother, “One of [my siblings’ and my] favorite spots that she would take us… [was] Georgie Donuts on 125th… That was always our treat.” Harlem holds many great memories for her. She describes Harlem as “colorful” and her story as “one for the books.”

To read the extended stories of featured Harlemites in our series, subscribe to our newsletter through our website, sugarhillcreamery.com. Nerrissa’s story goes live at 9 AM.

Read past Harlemites stories on our website under the ‘Community’ tab.

Living in Harlem all of her life, Winter has developed a profound connection to the community. Multiple generations of her family were raised in and continue to live in Harlem. The sense of community has held true from her childhood to now. And she works to contribute to it through working with families. Currently, Winter teaches mindfulness and meditation and is also an author, doula, and breath specialist.

“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 [families] 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.” 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...” 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…” She looks forward to more businesses opening in Harlem that can create similar memories for families in the neighborhood.

To read the extended stories of featured Harlemites in our series, subscribe to our newsletter through our website, sugarhillcreamery.com. Winter’s story goes live at 9 AM.

Read past Harlemites stories on our website under the ‘Community’ tab.

Born and raised in Harlem, Dahyo Offord grew up in a Dunbar apartment in the 70s. She and her three older siblings were raised to stand proud in their Blackness, to be educated about their history, and to be their own bosses. Her parents were the owners of Cool Magazine, her father Carl was a writer with works appearing next to James Baldwin and Zora Neale Hurston, and her mother, Arlene, had a non-profit, United Black Appeal, overseeing fundraising efforts to aid Ethiopia.

After school, she would go to programs like dance and swimming or go to her parents’ business to learn the trade, “I would go there after school... and actually... this was before computers, so I’m really telling my age, but… I’d be at the typewriter and… they had their mail order subscriptions... So I had to type up the labels with their name and address, then type up our name and address, put them in the envelopes, fold all the newspapers, stuff them in too.” She gained a variety of skills like learning how to do layout design and typesetting, “I, hand by hand, helped to lay out a whole newspaper, and the newspaper had over, like, 30 pages in it. So that was… an incredible experience... And even my mom… being able to go to… Epcot Center when it first opened and having a press pass to be there to just cover that and just so many different events… Those experiences and that access was just something I’ll always cherish.” Her childhood and experiences learning the family business influenced her as an adult, “I know that inspired me to make the game that I created, Hip Hop On The Rocks... I did a lot of the writing for it… So it made me think of my dad a lot because I put pen to paper to really write and just tap into that creative side and to work on it so hard… I wanted to have a game where… it included… our culture, but also had… a party feel to it.”

To read the extended stories of featured Harlemites in our series, subscribe to our newsletter through our website, sugarhillcreamery.com. Dahyo’s story goes live at 9 AM.

Read past Harlemites stories on our website under the ‘Community’ tab.

Our honey and lavender combo Fly Girl is ✨life changing✨

You’ve got to taste it to believe how perfectly these flavors complement each other.

Which of these spring flavors are you trying this weekend 1, 2, 3?

1) 🍊Orange Blossom
Named after the deluxe passenger train connecting railroads between New York City and Miami during the winter months from 1925 to 1953, this flavor pairs orange blossom water ice cream with *gluten-free* pistachio cake for the perfect taste of spring after a cold New York winter.

2) 🌿 Community Gardens
The inspiration for this flavor starts with the rhubarb plant that grew in the Iowan garden of one of our co-founder’s grandparents. We’ve steeped our classic vanilla base in lemon verbena and fold in a rhubarb gelée speculoos cookies for an unexpected summer treat.

3) 🥥 Pon de Replay (Vegan)
Inspired by the dancehall beats of Rihanna’s classic, we created a vegan treat that includes toasted coconut flakes, passionfruit, and tamarind. The result is a tart, fruit balance that transports winter blues to sunny days on the beach.

Meet Zakiya, a third generation Harlemite. She grew up in Graham Court and now lives in a brownstone with her children just a few blocks away from the building she was raised in. She spends most of her time with her kids and also works as an author and artist.

Where she spends her time now is centered around her children, “The kids like coming here, [Sugar Hill Creamery], because I have 4 kids, so everything revolves around them basically… I sometimes hang out at Barawine. When the pools open during the summer, we go there a lot in the summer... And then when I walk my dogs, I might walk them at Marcus Garvey Park, Morningside or Central Park depending on how much time I have… [And] my kids like Sottocasa.” Zakiya feels her children are living in a different era in Harlem when things are less social. She would make plans with her friends to go to Central Park and eat pizza or go to the movies, and feels her kids go out less than she did growing up. Many transactions were in person as well. Her mother used to send her to get groceries and pay the Con Edison bill when she was around 14 years old, but now you can do a lot more online. There are some aspects of Harlem she misses for her kids, she reminisces, “Blowing up the balloons for Thanksgiving [in the Upper West Side], that used to be like a New Yorker’s only event that New Yorkers only knew about. And so the night before, everyone would be outside of their homes… drinking hot apple cider watching balloons being blown up. And it was not the crazed, crowded thing that it is now... So that’s something I would go to when I was like 13/14, in some cases by myself.” People would even invite others inside for hot cider or hot chocolate and engage in conversations as they would watch the balloons.  

To read the extended stories of featured Harlemites in our series, subscribe to our newsletter through our website, sugarhillcreamery.com. Zakiya’s story goes live at 9 AM.

Read past Harlemites stories on our website under the ‘Community’ tab.

Meet Melvin, a Harlem resident of 25 years has shared with us his Harlem story raising his children, moving into an apartment building that was left in disrepair and helping rehabilitate it, and forging bonds within the neighborhood.

Melvin loves Harlem and has no plans to leave. He explains, “From my experience in Harlem, you know, I came in 2000, we were able to send our kids to… school… and they were able to get an education, they could play lacrosse. My experience… I only have a high school diploma. My wife has a doctorate in education, so education was important to her, where the common sense aspect was more important to me… [To] give my kids ‘street knowledge’ to make sure that you can walk in any… area and you can feel comfortable, you know… So that was important in Harlem, for being... high school educated… [and] to raise [my] kids to go to college... My three girls have Bachelor’s degrees. What else am I supposed to do with this life?” He reflects on his journey saying, “I’m 66 years old. I’ve never been arrested. I don’t have a criminal record and I grew up in the worst project in New York. My mother was a nurse who raised… raised seven of us. Some of us, the culture got us… but four of us made it. I got nephews and nieces that are cops, lawyers… You know, my wife says, ‘You’re emotional about New York.’ I am because I love New York…”

To read the extended stories of featured Harlemites in our series, subscribe to our newsletter through our website, sugarhillcreamery.com. Melvin’s story goes live at 9 AM.

Read past Harlemites stories on our website under the ‘Community’ tab.

Meet Kentrell, founder of Trell Nation, born and raised in Harlem now raising his daughter and building his business in the community.

Kentrell has a bit of a unique Harlem story. His grandmother came up from South Carolina and bought and managed their building in the 1960s, “So I’ve been in the same building my entire life. And so my mom, my aunt, they live on the third floor. My grandmother lived on the 3rd floor. And then when I was old enough [I] put some money down and I moved up to the fifth floor. [My] uncle… he’s passed since, but his two sons, they have the apartment on the second floor. And we just have a bunch of family friends… [My] grandma kind of got everybody together and.. put them in position to have an apartment. And a lot of the people that… still live in my building, they… helped raise me… Like my next door neighbor, she… bought my first [Sega] system... We’re really close knit… [and] we’re still there.”

To read the extended stories of featured Harlemites in our series, subscribe to our newsletter through our website, sugarhillcreamery.com. Kentrell’s story goes live at 9 AM.

Read past Harlemites stories on our website under the ‘Community’ tab.

Gentle reminder for you to get hold of our rainbow cookies till they’re still around which won’t be for long!

P.S. How good does this rainbow cookie sandwich look with a scoop of A$AP ROCK ROAD in the middle?!😋

Picture Courtesy:

 

Meet Alicia, someone who is always active in the community she spent most of her life in. One of the ways she is active is being troop leader for Girl Scouts. Her work with Girl Scouts started when she was teaching a swimming class at the Harlem YMCA when a mother asked if she would consider being her youngest daughter’s troop leader. Although she initially thought it would only last a year, she loved it and has now grown from her first troop of nine girls to having the largest Girl Scout troop in Harlem.

“My Harlem story… I think I could relate to a lot of people, like my mom was an immigrant. I’m an only child, I’m a first gen... I wouldn’t change my upbringing, I wouldn’t change my experiences in Harlem... I wouldn’t have gone into education if I wasn’t in Harlem at the Y working… I wouldn’t know the people that I know now if I wasn’t in Harlem... I think the people that I know and have formed relationships with, they’re definitely like my second family...” She feels connected to the history of Harlem “My family grew up in Douglass Projects and… Central Park West, like that area. And so as they’ve gotten older they moved to Harlem as well and I think just being an offspring of them has instilled in me to be a product of Harlem, which I love. I love Harlem… I would never deny where I’m from… regardless of how people may think of it, outside looking in, [I’ve known] Harlem since the 90s to now. And you know, at the end of the day you’re gonna think what you’re gonna think, but I know what I know. And I love where I’m from.”

To read the extended stories of featured Harlemites in our series, subscribe to our newsletter through our website, sugarhillcreamery.com. Alicia’s story goes live at 9 AM.

Read past Harlemites stories on our website under the ‘Community’ tab.

I scream, You scream…we all scream for Ice Cream!!

📸courtesy:

Meet Katrina, mother, entrepreneur, co-founder of NiLu, and community figure.

Harlem has both personal and professional significance for Katrina. Harlem raised her and is where she has raised her children and found a true sense of community, “I love that, you know, even now when my oldest, he walks the dogs, he’s like, ‘You know, every time I walk the dog, everybody always tells me, ’Aren’t you Katrina’s?’’ …I have a sense [of] community in a way that… I didn’t experience growing up… and I’m so thankful [for] that. You know, when we were raising our boys, there were four other families that were all the same age. We were a little older parents, right. Therefore, we didn’t have support systems, we didn’t have our mothers come in and watch our kids when they were younger… so we clung and hung on to each other. So I love that even to this day my boys have a group of friends that they refer to as ‘the crew’. ‘The crew’ is the neighborhood kids that they grew up with that they never not remember a time when they were not in their lives, you know… I love that they have that bridge… And it’s just this four block radius and they will forever be ‘the crew.’”

To read the extended stories of featured Harlemites in our series, subscribe to our newsletter through our website, sugarhillcreamery.com. Katrina’s story goes live at 9 AM.

Read past Harlemites stories on our website under the ‘Community’ tab.

Meet Jahkeen, known by most as Jah. He was born and raised in Harlem and now is a well known community figure and entrepreneur giving back to the neighborhood in every way he can. Jah is the founder of Harlem Kettlebell Club, working to provide quality workouts, encourage movement, and healthy/balanced living for people in the community.

His childhood in Harlem is filled with nostalgic and pivotal memories that have influenced the person he is today. “I had summer camp on the block. Like my mom couldn’t afford to send us away… But we made it happen right on the block… Initially we had a crate and then once… they got some money they actually bought us an actual hoop, so we had basketball tournaments on Lenox Ave., right on 131st St. We had other kids coming from other blocks to play us, we had our own tournaments. We’re talking roller skates with brooms, with a tennis ball, right. We got hockey... We’re playing tag, like those things I miss the most… The other people making sure that we were safe, we’re having a good time on the block… My mom knew that I was right outside and everyone was paying attention to me. Whether it’s looking from the fire escape or somebody outside on the stoop. Someone was there... I think it all still comes back to just like that community vibe that we had. We knew we were supported, we were happy and we didn’t have much and that was the biggest thing... So you realize life is a lot simpler…”

To read the extended stories of featured Harlemites in our series, subscribe to our newsletter through our website, sugarhillcreamery.com. Jah’s story goes live at 9 AM.

Read past Harlemites stories on our website under the ‘Community’ tab.

Meet Estina, a lifelong resident and entrepreneur with beautiful memories growing up in Harlem.

Estina and her friends would often stop at the deli or the penny store on the way to school, “When I would go to the deli… I would be like ‘Lemme get a bacon, egg, and cheese’, all in one [word]... And then we used to have this penny store on Lexington… between 117 and 118. Small little shop, like you could hardly fit two people in there. But you could get every single type of candy that you wanted for a penny each. And we’d go before we’d to school. That’s why they were screaming at us, like, ‘Go to school!’”, she laughs. She recalls she and her sister, Lisa, getting icees from the Icee man and playing in the fire hydrant. Whether it was getting creative and making their own games, going to basketball games at Kingdome, cookouts, and block parties, or going on walks following the Yogi Bear Truck from 117th to 196th St. and picking up friends along the way, there was always something to do that helped create memories and forge bonds.

To read the extended stories of featured Harlemites in our series, subscribe to our newsletter through our website, sugarhillcreamery.com. Estina’s story goes live at 9 AM.

Read past Harlemites stories on our website under the ‘Community’ tab.

Meet Denya!

“...[Harlem]... changed me to be more confident… I feel like here I could just… be authentically who I am because that’s what everybody else is doing.” She says, “...I think I feel really supported and loved here and also very safe… And so I really do feel like I can trust… the community here to number one, support me as a woman or a business woman, a married woman, and also a mother…” Thinking of the future, Denya says, “...Harlem is home. I plan to be here for the long run… There is just something about Harlem that is just so different… And I am so excited to raise my kid here… and to build our roots…”

To read the extended stories of featured Harlemites in our series, including Denya’s, subscribe to our newsletter through our website, www.sugarhillcreamery.com.

Denya’s story goes live at 9 AM.

Coming soon: We’re adding an archive of every featured Harlemite on our website! 😍

Our first Harlemites story was shared on November 5, 2023. We have now shared the unique and diverse stories of over a dozen Harlem residents.

The beginnings of Harlemites can be traced back two years ago in an art class at The City College of New York attended by our Public Programs Coordinator, Bianca Balkaran, and Photographer, Oji Haynes, and led by our co-founder, Petrushka Bazin Larsen. Reuniting in 2023, our work continued with Harlemites, a project born out of the desire to record the oral history of Harlem while highlighting the beauty of its residents.

As Harlemites continues to develop and grow, we will now be sharing the photos and longer form stories of our featured Harlemites in our Sunday morning email. Their photographs will continue to be posted on our Instagram along with excerpts from their story.

We are excited to help further connect people to Harlem by getting to know the amazing residents who form the community.

Sign up for our mailing list on our website to continue reading the full stories!

Search to read all the stories we’ve shared so far.

Mia has spent most of her life in Harlem. Her core memories as a person and as an artist are embedded in the community. Harlem School of the Arts is the first place she performed, “Harlem School of the Arts is such a magical, wonderful little place… We’re taught… you’re just furthering a legacy… That holds a lot of weight and you have to… carry that with the same kind of care and integrity that it deserves…”

She believes the essence of Harlem is found in the people, and growing up that sense of community was apparent. “...Like as a kid, you don’t always feel completely by yourself... We got on the trains by ourselves… moved around by ourselves, but you were never too far out of somebody’s sight... Like, ‘Yeah, that’s my aunt…’, ‘You mean your mother’s sister?’, ‘No, it’s my aunt. I know it’s not my mother’s sister but that’s my aunt and please don’t tell her that you just saw me.’...”

Harlem is integral to her art as a musician, “I think it colors everything [I do]... I want everyone to experience a little bit of Harlem… and if I could be someone’s window into the neighborhood that I love so much then I think I did my job.” Walking around the neighborhood triggers memories that can inspire her or allow her to reminisce about the community she loves so much. She recalls, “…We used to buy bootleg CDs and [walk] down the block in our little name belts. Oh My Gosh, those tacky… name belts that I got around the corner. And my first name plate I got around the corner. Like stuff like that is all super… ingrained in you...”

“…We’re really loving and it’s a really special group of people that are from here and that live here... It’s a privilege… to be part of Harlem’s story… I want people to embrace the beauty of it and not just see it as a way to escape and find cheaper rent Uptown… I want you to come here and notice how [warm, friendly, talented, and fly] the people are… Move here for the [love, community, and the summer]… I’m always like… ‘Yo come to Harlem… right around July 4th and tell me you don’t have a good time… You start at one end of the park, by the time you get to the water you like, ‘Well, I got a date tomorrow. I ate… And I’m lit… I love Harlem…’”

This Kids Karaoke party by Norae Kids at our Lexington Ave store is a vibe! Next one is Feb 23rd. See you there!

Seymone is a lifelong Harlem resident and first generation Harlemite, “...I feel like for a lot of us… our families migrated to the north to find better opportunities in New York.” Growing up on her block she says, “I feel like everybody looked out for each other because, you [knew] if you were walking down a certain block and you were doing something you weren’t supposed to do. And someone was to see you and… call your parents. You [knew] you [were] gonna get in trouble… ”, she laughs.

As a writer, Harlem is important to her creativity, “...I wrote a poem called ‘Where I’m From’ that was based on Harlem. And so I highlighted a lot of the landmarks that are no longer in Harlem [and] some that are still here.” She loves taking walks through Harlem and feels it grounds and inspires her. Seymone says, “... One thing I love about Harlem is… I’m still discovering things. Like one day I was walking down Marcus Garvey... And there was a Brownstone [having an art event]... [They said], ‘Oh, yeah. We’ve been here for 20 years.’ I said ‘Wait, hold on 20 years?… There’s still stuff I’m still finding out now, I’m like ‘Am I really from Harlem?’”

Currently, she works as a substitute teacher and has been writing for the past 15 years, writing Urban Fiction, poetry, and a children’s book. She tries to give back through her art, mentoring her students, supporting local businesses, helping with the African American Day parade, and attending community meetings. “...I know I want to be that example for the next generation as well, because I work with children... So, for my children’s book I found a way where I can show that there are Black authors and… Black characters that look like you and you can still achieve your dreams…”

Seymone feels the spirit of the community when she attends events like Harlem Week, the African American Day parade, Melba’s block parties, and The Soapbox Presents, “Every time I go I’m like, ‘Yes, we still here’… And… to… see the essence of older people, young kids… do the electric slide together… and having fun… It’s vibrant and… showing that Harlem is still very colorful. It’s still very beautiful because we’re still coming together…”