"Sheck Wes is a 19-year-old chart topping rapper from Central Harlem in New York City. He grew up on 116th Street and Lenox, right in the heart of a neighborhood that has come to be known as 'Le Petit Senegal.' The area has been rapidly gentrifying since the early 2000s, but even today if you walk the area surrounding 116th street you can pass a plethora of stores run by a largely Francophone population of African immigrants, serving Manhattan’s uptown population. African restaurants, tailors, bakeries, Islamic centers and music shops were once regular fixtures in a neighborhood now filling up with condos and coffee shops. Wes’s father is a tailor (who once worked for legendary hip hop stylist Dapper Dan) and his mother a hair braider in the area. Their community’s story is an important lens through which to understand African immigrant culture that is not yet widely recognized. The largest single group in Little Senegal are the Mourides—members of an entrepreneurial branch of Sufi Islam which has its roots in late 19th century colonial French West Africa. ..."
Africa Is a Country
W - Le Petit Senegal
Little Senegal on Harlem's 116th Street shrinks as gentrification takes hold
NY Times: A One-Woman Welcome Wagon in Le Petit Sénégal
NY Times: In Harlem's Fabric, Bright Threads of Senegal
Dapper Dan
How Little Senegal Became Harlem’s West African Hub
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