Marva Allen—a Harlem visionary

By MARYAM ABDUL-ALEEM
Special to the Amsterdam News
A lot of people come to Harlem for the experience. People come to see the Apollo Theater, the state office building’s statue of Adam Clayton Powell, the historic site of the Hotel Theresa, and they often finish the experience off with a meal at the famous Sylvia’s restaurant.And now, more and more, people are coming to Harlem to stop by the Hue-Man Bookstore (located between 124th and 125th streets and 8th Avenue, next to the Magic Johnson theater), a place that local residents already frequent to buy a book, listen to an author and sit in its café and drink in the ambiance from Harlem’s Black-owned bookstore.
Just ask the co-owner of Hue-Man bookstore, Marva Allen, the store’s strong-willed, “social/entrepreneurial” advocate and chief operating officer who said “Harlem is the seat of culture that defines the African-American experience.”
And the Hue-Man Bookstore by extension, Allen said, in a room at the back of the bookstore closed off to employees, is more than just a bookstore: “It’s sacred ground."
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