NEW YORK CITY: SUNDAY, JUNE 14, 2009—One of the best reasons to travel to the Big Apple is to catch the Bay Area’s own talented actor and movie star Delroy Lindo in Things of Dry Hours at the New York Theater Workshop. It is powerful, compelling and tackles a subject seldom explored, the issue of the American Communist movement in the 1930’s deep South. Lindo made his Broadway debut in August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come And Gone, winning nominations for both Tony and Drama Desk awards, and later stared in Athol Fugard’s Master Harold and the Boys on Broadway. But it was his role in the film Cider House Rules that solidified his star quality on film and television. He has also been featured in many other films, including my HBO favorite Lackawanna Blues.

I thought I’d never see the day when people would pay $55 to tour Harlem, but it’s happening these days. On our annual visit to the historic, 200 year-old Abyssinian Baptist Church, we were surprised to see them, but there they were, lined around the block: scores of people without dark skin, waiting to attend the Sunday service. Abyssinian is the home church of the late, flamboyant Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, for whom one of the widest boulevards in Harlem is named. Though the now-famous pastor Rev. Calvin Butts, III was present on this particular day, the sermon was delivered by one of his protegees, Rev. Patrick Young from the First Baptist Church of East Elmhurst. His sermon’s title stays with me: What God has for you, is for you; all you have to do is want it, too.

Then after having eaten at several fancy, Manhattan small-portions restaurants, we had a taste for some “down-home” barbecue–and where did we find it?  Not in Harlem, where I’m sure there is good “Q”, but just around the corner from our hotel. Right off Broadway and West 44th Streets was Virgil’s, where the pulled pork sandwich is the best, and the ribs were not bad either.

Everything was just as Rev. Young had spoken: we had wanted to catch a quick dose of New York’s vibrant culture this weekend, and we did. It was a wonderful blessing, just for us.