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Harlem of the West is back

AFTER BEING out of print for more than seven years, a new and expanded second edition of Harlem of the West — along with a companion website and exhibition — will be unveiled at the end of the month. The photo and history book celebrating Fillmore’s jazz era in the 1940s and ’50s was originally…

Images that tell a story

A CONVERSATION with photographer David Johnson and his old friend and new wife, author Jacqueline Sue, as a new exhibition of his photographs of the Fillmore during the “Harlem of the West” era opens. Jackie: In November we will have known each other for 58 years. Just a few weeks ago we celebrated your 88th…

Photographer made his mark on Fillmore

A HANDSOME NEW BOOK — melodiously titled A Dream Begun So Long Ago — chronicles the life of photographer David Johnson from his childhood, shuffling through the care of various adults in segregated Jacksonville, Florida, through his on-and-off relationship with the art of photography. Now it’s firmly on again as the 86-year-old relishes his recognition…

From old Fillmore photos, a rebirth

PHOTOGRAPHY | THOMAS REYNOLDS Singer James Brown may have been the hardest-working man in show business, but David Johnson is surely the hardest-working 84-year-old in the photography business. In recent months he’s had four major exhibitions — mostly photographs from the heyday of the Fillmore’s jazz era — including one in Atlanta and another at…

VIDEO

“THE FILLMORE” — Opening sequence from the feature-length PBS documentary that tells the poignant story of the rise and fall of “The Harlem of the West.” COOKIN’ THE BOOKS — Browser Books on Fillmore Street tries out its cookbooks, right in the store, on the third weekend of each month. CELEBRATING ALAMO SQUARE — A new…

The Fillmore meets Japantown, 1946

Then as now, the intersection of Fillmore and Post was also the intersection of two neighborhoods. Japanese-Americans had returned from the internment camps of World War II to find that, in their absence, African-Americans had arrived in record numbers as part of the war effort. What had been Japantown had been transformed into an all-night…

Magic at 1300 Fillmore

HARLEM NIGHTS MEET PACIFIC HEIGHTS A restaurant bridges the divide between upper and lower Fillmore By BARBARA KATE REPA David Lawrence and Monetta White are living a dream. Their restaurant, 1300 on Fillmore, has been packed to capacity since it opened in November 2007. The food has won rave reviews. And the stylish setting attracts an…