Stefan Jeremiah/AP

Former President Donald Trump leaves the Trump Building in lower Manhattan, Jan. 11, 2024, in New York after his civil fraud trial concluded.

The outlook for former President Donald Trump’s legal troubles is beginning to look very different than it did only a few months ago.

Civil trials that many legal experts once rated secondary to his upcoming criminal prosecutions have begun to hit Mr. Trump hard in the wallet. Two convictions for defamation against writer E. Jean Carroll will cost him some $88 million, unless the awards are reduced on appeal. He will likely be on the hook for hundreds of millions more after New York state Justice Arthur Engoron, who has already found the Trump family business liable for financial fraud, rules on penalties in that case.

At the same time Mr. Trump’s big criminal trials are appearing increasingly less likely to produce verdicts prior to the 2024 presidential election. Less-than-speedy judicial decisions have pushed back federal proceedings charging him with trying to overturn the 2020 vote and illegally retaining classified documents. In Georgia, charges that the prosecutor hired a romantic partner have muddied prospects for that state’s sweeping election interference case.

The bottom line is that Mr. Trump’s legal strategy of attempting to drag out cases to lessen any political impact on November’s election could be working.

“He has been remarkably successful thus far at delaying his criminal trials,” says Daniel Urman, a professor of law and public policy at Northeastern University.

Expensive civil cases

For Mr. Trump, the potential outcome of the civil cases has always seemed less dire than the possible consequences of the criminal proceedings. Civil cases don’t result in jail sentences. Instead, they typically produce monetary judgments.

But the size of the award against the former president in the Carroll defamation case, along with what may be an even larger judgment in the New York state fraud case, could pinch the finances and cash flow of even a wealthy real estate magnate.

Late last month, a federal jury awarded Ms. Carroll more than $83 million in damages for defamation after she accused Mr. Trump of sexually assaulting her decades ago in a department store dressing room. He had denied the charge, and attacked the writer in bitter, personal terms.

Yuki Iwamura/AP

E. Jean Carroll leaves federal court Jan. 26, 2024, in New York. A jury has awarded an additional $83.3 million to Ms. Carroll, who says former President Donald Trump damaged her reputation by calling her a liar after she accused him of sexual assault.

This sum is stacked onto $5 million Ms. Carroll won from Mr. Trump last year in a related legal proceeding.

While these judgments will almost certainly be appealed, Mr. Trump under New York law will have to either produce the entire sum to be held in trust while the appeal proceeds or post a bond equal to the amount.

Meanwhile New York state Attorney General Letitia James is asking for a $370 million judgment against Mr. Trump and co-defendants for exaggerating his firm’s wealth to lenders. Judge Engoron has already ruled the defendants are guilty in this case. He is planning on issuing a ruling on the size of penalties by mid-February.

“That’s the working timeline,” said Alfred Baker, a spokesperson for New York’s Office of Court Administration, last week.

A total of half a billion dollars in civil judgments would not bankrupt the billionaire Mr. Trump. But it could drain his ready cash and force the sale or mortgaging of real estate assets.

“I believe we have substantially in excess of $400 million in cash, which is a lot for a developer,” said Mr. Trump in a deposition last year for the Carroll case.

Mr. Trump’s presence at the civil cases this year greatly increased media coverage and public awareness of the proceedings. His use of the courtroom as a quasi-stage to express discontent perhaps presaged the approach he may use if his criminal cases come to trial.

In the Carroll courtroom, Mr. Trump glowered, whispered loudly to his attorneys, and finally stalked out entirely during the summation by Ms. Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan.

His behavior was “his way of sending a message to the jury and creating a circus,” tweeted former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti on Jan. 26.

If so, it apparently did not work, as the jury returned its verdict of an $83 million judgement within a few hours.

Slow criminal cases 

Mr. Trump’s evident desire to stretch out his criminal trials as long as possible has been more successful.

“He has absolutely used the opportunities available to him to the fullest in that way,” says Professor Urman. 

Trump critics have hoped these trials might deliver a final blow to the former president’s Oval Office hopes. That remains possible, but it now seems at least as likely that the most important of these cases will not wrap up before November.

If they do not, and Mr. Trump triumphs, upon his inauguration he is almost certain to order the Justice Department to drop the cases brought by special counsel Jack Smith – the federal election interference case and the prosecution for hiding classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after leaving office.

John Bazemore/AP/File

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (center) speaks alongside special prosecutor Nathan Wade (right) during a news conference in Atlanta on Aug. 14, 2023. Ms. Willis acknowledged having a “personal relationship” with Mr. Wade, whom she hired for the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump. She argued there are no grounds to remove her from the prosecution.

Perhaps the most important current source of delay is the question of presidential immunity that Mr. Trump’s lawyers have raised in regard to the election case.

They argue that Mr. Trump, as a former president, is immune from criminal prosecution for acts taken while in office if he is not first impeached and convicted by the Senate for those acts.

The case, under Judge Tanya Chutkan, has been paused for 50 days while this question is litigated. It is currently under consideration by a panel of the DC Court of Appeals and will almost certainly end up in the Supreme Court.

Originally, the trial in the election case was scheduled to begin on March 4. That date has now dropped off the public calendar of the federal court in Washington. It is unclear when the case might resume.

The federal classified documents case has similarly slowed following a relatively brisk beginning. Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointment to the federal bench, has run pretrial proceedings at a relatively leisurely pace. And any case in which litigation revolves around classified information is complicated, involving lengthy discussions among defense, prosecution, and judge as to what secrets can be used at trial, and how they should be handled.

The documents case is still scheduled to begin on May 20, but many legal experts doubt that deadline will be met.

Meanwhile, whether the Georgia election case will proceed on schedule is now up in the air, as a state judge weighs whether prosecutor Fani Willis should be removed from the case following reports of her romantic relationship with a subordinate. 

The only Trump criminal trial that appears to be still on track is one in New York state that centers on charges involving Mr. Trump’s payment of hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels prior to the 2020 election. That involves a novel interpretation of state law that prosecutors have used to charge the case as a felony.

“Trump prosecutions are no longer on pace to finish before the election, with the least important New York case now most likely to move in time,” wrote Michigan State University political scientist Matt Grossmann on X, formerly Twitter, last week.

When Israeli soldiers came for Baleegh al-Barghouti, before dawn one morning in late November, the Palestinian college student and his family were at their West Bank home – ready, and expecting the arrest.

They raced downstairs to open the door before the Israeli foot patrol could break it down, and were told Mr. Barghouti was wanted for a “quick conversation.”

Yet the family has heard no news of Mr. Barghouti since he was added to the growing ranks of Palestinians put under “administrative detention” – held without trial or charge. Since Hamas’ attack from Gaza Oct. 7, the status has been applied to more than half of the 6,540 Palestinians swept up in the West Bank, Palestinian officials say.

“He did nothing. We saw them kicking and hitting him. How can you convince these young people to go for peace?” says Mr. Barghouti’s mother, Nida, who wears a white headscarf and has spent decades in close proximity to Palestinian politics and resistance.

“I don’t know how this is affecting his well-being at the moment, [or] what he will be thinking in the future,” she says.

The wave of arrests and raids in the occupied West Bank since Oct. 7 is one part of a broader mosaic of Israeli actions that Palestinians say have boosted both defiance against the occupation and support for armed resistance. Both have surged in the aftermath of the Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people and provoked an Israeli offensive in Gaza that local authorities say has killed 27,365 Palestinians.

Increasingly hostile attitudes among Palestinians and Israelis alike have been nurtured, too, by opposing narratives about who is the greater victim, and who is the greater assailant.

Among Palestinians, for example, there is wide public support for the Hamas attack, with Hamas’ popularity in the West Bank, especially, tripling from pre-Oct. 7 levels to 85%, according to a mid-December poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.

That poll showed that 95% of Palestinians believe Israel has committed war crimes during the current war, but that only 10% believe Hamas had done so. Likewise, 85% of Palestinians had not seen videos of Hamas atrocities, such as killing women and children in their homes – many taken from Hamas fighters’ own body cameras – which have been daily fare for Israelis and stoked broad public support for the fight in Gaza.

Impact of events

Palestinians in the West Bank say the long-term negative impact of current events, including a surge of Israeli settler violence, the rising death toll in Gaza, and even arrest cases as simple as Mr. Barghouti’s, can’t be calculated.

Scott Peterson/Getty Images/The Christian Science Monitor

Posters of Suhair al-Barghouti, a veteran resistance activist who goes by Umm Asif, hang from the roof of her home, in Kobar, West Bank, Dec. 9, 2023. Umm Asif's late husband, Omar al-Barghouti, a leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the West Bank, spent a total of 27 years in Israeli prisons.

Mr. Barghouti had been released by Israel in January 2023, after spending two years in prison for infractions such as stone-throwing as a teenager. His family says he emerged a more circumspect man.

“He was determined not to get into trouble,” recalls his mother. “He said, ‘I don’t want to go back to prison; that’s it.’” The 23-year-old enrolled at Birzeit University and “was very committed to his studies.”

The family says they will now support any choice their son makes, about the resistance or otherwise, when he gets out.

Mr. Barghouti’s father, Moqbel al-Barghouti, who works with prisoners’ families and was himself held for two years in the 1980s, says more than 1 million Palestinians have been imprisoned by Israel since 1967.

“A very significant chunk of them, when they were released, came back to resistance – Yahya Sinwar is one of them,” says the elder Barghouti, referring to the Hamas military chief in Gaza who was freed in a 2011 prisoner exchange after 22 years behind bars, only to mastermind the October attack.

“This sequence will not end. They take revenge now, we will take revenge later, and this will go on for generations,” he adds. “As long as the occupation continues, there will be resistance. As long as they continue to kill, we will continue to fight back.”

Undimmed defiance

That view is echoed by Suhair al-Barghouti, a veteran resistance activist who goes by the name Umm Asif and who was arrested in a 2 a.m. raid on her house in Kobar Oct. 26, then released during a Hamas-Israel prisoner exchange Nov. 30.

In her living room hang portraits of her late husband, Omar al-Barghouti, a senior Hamas figure who spent a total of 27 years in Israeli prisons and died of COVID-19 in 2021. One son was shot dead by Israeli security forces in 2019, in what the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem called an “apparent extrajudicial killing,” just days after he was suspected of taking part in a drive-by shooting that wounded seven Israeli settlers. Another son is serving a life sentence.

“You are a terrorist. You raise terrorists. ... We treat you like animals,” Umm Asif says she was told during her arrest. When she was released, she says her interrogator told her, “If you raise one flag, if you do any celebration, I will round you up again.”

But Umm Asif’s defiance is undimmed: “We have every right for resistance. The only hope left for us is the resistance,” she says. “We don’t know where this will take us.”

Scott Peterson/Getty Images/The Christian Science Monitor

Suhair al-Barghouti, known as Umm Asif, sits in her home in Kobar, West Bank, Dec. 9, 2023. She was released from Israeli prison Nov. 30, on the third night of a hostage-for-prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas during a weeklong cease-fire. Palestinians “have every right for resistance. The only hope left for us is the resistance,” she says.

Like many Palestinians in the West Bank, Umm Asif rejects allegations that Hamas engaged in well-documented atrocities such as rape and sexual mutilation.

“This could never happen from our men. They have the Quran in their hearts,” asserts Um Asif. “God willing, [Israel] will not defeat Hamas. At least they have God’s divine protection, because they are people of a just cause.”

While released detainees often embrace resistance, one high-profile prisoner may choose another path. Palestinians often refer to apartheid-era South Africa in the early 1990s, when then-President F.W. de Klerk released Nelson Mandela after 27 years in prison and ended white minority rule.

“Israel needs a De Klerk who will have the courage to sign a peace deal ... with our Mandela,” says Moqbel Barghouti, pointing to the stylized portrait above his couch that shows his brother, Marwan al-Barghouti, a Fatah leader convicted of directing deadly attacks in the second intifada and now serving multiple life sentences.

Amid deliberations by Hamas and Israel over a potential new cease-fire agreement, a Hamas official in Beirut said the organization wants Marwan Barghouti released as part of any hostages-for-prisoners swap.

Polls show that, even from behind bars, he retains widespread popular support and has emphasized the need for national reconciliation.

“Our message for Israelis is: Look for whoever will bring you peace,” says Moqbel Barghouti. “Because not just Palestinians need it, but Israelis need it.”

Richard B. Levine/Newscom

A store of the Dutch electric-bicycle maker VanMoof is in the Williamsburg neighborhood of New York, Sept. 2, 2023. VanMoof filed for bankruptcy protection last year, stranding e-bike owners awaiting repairs.

The spectacular failure of VanMoof, the Dutch company once dubbed the Tesla of electric bikes, has dominated business headlines about the Netherlands.

Launched by two Dutch brothers, VanMoof tucked the bulky e-bike battery into a sleek frame, which floated down Amsterdam streets. The bikes found a rabid 200,000-strong global following, only to descend into bankruptcy late last year.

But in many ways, its rise – and fall – illustrates an entrepreneurial spirit in a tiny country that birthed global travel’s Booking.com and electronics behemoth Philips.

“The headlines said, ‘VanMoof went Van Poof,’” says Vilma Chila, a professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at the University of Amsterdam’s business school. “But it’s a little unfair to the city and country. Big firms are thriving, and Amsterdam is a city of 900,000 people, with 65% of all venture-backed startups in the general area of western and northern Europe located here.”

Indeed, the Netherlands plays an outsize role in Europe’s startup ecosystem. It has a culture that encourages risk-taking, universities that draw skilled minds from around the world, and a government friendly to entrepreneurs. Its startup culture hews closer to America’s fast-paced capitalistic ethos than France’s or Germany’s, say experts, and could potentially help Europe become a global leader in entrepreneurship. But the Netherlands must first work through a few limitations, including growing anti-immigrant sentiment and a spotty track record when it comes to scaling up. 

“The Dutch were sailors and traders, and they’ve always done business abroad; they’ve always expanded,” says Dr. Chila. “Now they’ve got a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

“Give it a shot” atmosphere

Amsterdam is already one of Europe’s fastest-growing startup hubs, with the market cap of Netherlands-founded startups potentially reaching a total of €400 billion this decade.

The port city has plenty to offer as a laboratory. It boasts the European Union’s second-largest airport behind Paris. It also re-homed more United Kingdom-based companies after the U.K. left the EU than any other European city.

Add to that a university system that attracts global talent. Satya Ankur gave up a tech career in India to further study computer science in Amsterdam, and he’s planning to stay. “I love the openness here, and the hierarchy is less evident [than in India],” says Mr. Ankur. “I can talk to my professors like a colleague.”

After he graduates, a plethora of entrepreneurship programs await, including university-sponsored grants of €10,000 to try out vetted ideas, with incubators stepping in at higher funding levels.

A handful of cultural “intangibles” also boosts the energy around startups, says Jonathan Sitruk, a professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at the University of Amsterdam. “There’s a lot of romanticism around entrepreneurship in the culture,” he says, noting that his students and the general public are “very interested in startups and what they do.”

That culture was shaped over centuries, coming from a Protestant work ethic and the concept that “making money is not a bad thing, and building a business is not a bad thing.” Contrasted with the more Catholic traditions of neighboring countries, these traditions, Dr. Sitruk says, clearly impact “the way society behaves.”

For example, there’s almost no bureaucracy, with a company readily initiated in an afternoon at the appropriate government office. “This is really quickly done and very accessible to anyone who does or does not speak Dutch,” says Dr. Sitruk.

A societal pragmatism also values trying over a fear of failing. “The Dutch have created this atmosphere where you put a little money into something, see if it works, open your own shop, give it a shot,” says Dr. Chila. 

And they have. Health and fintech take the top two spots in the Netherlands, commanding the largest shares of startup funding, as they do in the United States. There are also strengths in electric mobility, life sciences, sensor technology, and a host of other industries. 

Lenora Chu

Andres Martinez, owner of bike shop WheelGood in Amsterdam, stands with a row of VanMoof e-bikes waiting for customer pickup.

Weak points

All that business activity and the influx of talent have stretched Amsterdam to its seams. Housing is pricey and scarce, and the Dutch education minister proposes to limit foreign enrollment at colleges to tackle the “unchecked pace of internationalization” in education, the workplace, and the community. The country’s far-right party won the largest single bloc of seats in parliament in November on an anti-migration, anti-EU platform.

Yet “in-migration of skilled people” dates back to the Golden Age of the 17th century, which birthed the painter Rembrandt and the United East India Company, says Erik Stam, professor of entrepreneurship and former dean of the economics school at Utrecht University.

“To some degree, the Dutch government and also society has forgotten about this part of Dutch success,” says Dr. Stam, pointing to a growing narrative that migration is bad for the Dutch economy.

Another problem: Many Dutch startups don’t scale up successfully. The sheer number of startups and amount of venture capital are “top leagues globally,” says Dr. Stam, “but if you look at the number of scale-ups and unicorns, they do slightly less. You’d expect a higher position given the overall strength of the ecosystem.”

VanMoof could be considered one case study in failure to scale.

Rise and fall of VanMoof

“People loved the design; they wanted it,” says Andres Martinez, founder of the bike repair shop WheelGood in Amsterdam, about VanMoof’s early success. “I ditched my car for riding a bike, like a lot of these [customers].”

VanMoof expanded quickly globally, but it couldn’t keep up with servicing demands and ultimately sold bikes below cost. 

Still, it was the Dutch ethos that birthed the company’s initial success, and that should be celebrated, says Colin Westerwoudt, an Amsterdam-based entrepreneur who rides a VanMoof bike to work.

He compares the company to Tesla, which faced spectacularly bad press for engine fires and other technology issues but ultimately helped advance the electric vehicle market. “Same with VanMoof,” he says. “Making a difference is hard. They innovated, and now you see a lot of companies copying their bikes. We have to be proud of it.”

Overall, the Dutch ecosystem is raring to go, say experts. 

“The Netherlands can be a laboratory for all kinds of entrepreneurial experiments to address societal challenges,” says Dr. Stam, the entrepreneurship professor. “There are not so many economies in which the room to maneuver, or the appreciation of creativity are so well developed.”

Aude Guerrucci/Reuters

A view of the Los Angeles River during heavy rains in Los Angeles, Feb. 5, 2024.

Charles Garcia got the call Saturday night. Officials were expecting a mandatory evacuation of residents along La Tuna Canyon Road due to a slow-moving, massive rain storm forecast to slam into Southern California the next day. Could he ready the senior center in Sunland, a neighborhood in northern Los Angeles, to receive local residents?

The mountainous area was in danger of landslides because a fire just two years ago had left steep slopes vulnerable. By 6:30 a.m. Sunday, Mr. Garcia was at the senior center, setting up tables with tablecloths for meals and snacks and marking off a section for 125 cots. He well remembers California’s exceptionally wet winter last year, and says the storms “are definitely more frequent.”

Welcome to California, famed for its Mediterranean climate but now trying to adapt to more intense weather, be it drought, fire, or rain. Already at the start of last week, outreach workers were fanning out across the Los Angeles basin to warn homeless people of the approaching megastorm, directing them to four local shelters. The governor mobilized thousands of state transportation workers, hundreds of first-aid responders, swift-water rescue teams, and provided for millions of sandbags across the state. 

“California is ready with a record number of emergency assets on the ground to respond to the impacts of this storm,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday, as he announced a state of emergency across eight counties in Southern California. In the past five years, California will have spent a total of $40.2 billion of its state budget to mitigate climate change and its impacts.

Francine Kiefer/The Christian Science Monitor

Los Angeles City Council member Monica Rodriguez (left) drops by to check readiness and talk with Charles Garcia, facility director of the Sunland Senior Citizen Center in California, which is set up to receive evacuees Feb. 4, 2024.

A storm’s widespread damage

Now comes the test of how the state’s rising efforts at preparedness are working – after more than 6 inches of precipitation in Los Angeles by Monday morning and significant rainfall elsewhere.

Upward of 14 million residents were under a high risk of excessive rain across Southern California, as a widespread storm moved in from the Pacific Ocean over the weekend. It has pummeled much of the state with gale-force winds and heavy rain, causing toppled trees, flooding, and downed power lines. More than 500,000 people had experienced power outages as of Monday morning. Two people died in Northern California from trees that fell.

The storm is taking its time, and that’s part of the problem as rain piles atop ground already saturated by an earlier storm. In areas of Los Angeles, the storm is expected to have dropped close to half a year’s worth of rain by the time it winds down on Tuesday.

SOURCE:

NOAA Weather Prediction Center

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Jacob Turcotte/Staff

Flows of mud and debris damaged homes in the Hollywood Hills area and forced residents to flee. The National Weather Service in Los Angeles described conditions there and in the surrounding Santa Monica Mountains as an “extremely dangerous situation” and warned of “life-threatening landslides and additional flash flooding.” In the Sierra Nevada mountains, some parts have measured more than 2 feet of snow this week.

“Weather whiplash,” or swings between drought and rain, is not unusual for California, according to scientists. This is an El Niño weather year, when trade winds in the Pacific weaken and push warm water toward the West Coast, producing wetter-than-usual winters and flooding. But as climate change warms the oceans, that adds to the fuel for more intense storms.

Residents brace for storm impact

Back at the Sunland senior center on Sunday, Los Angeles City Council member Monica Rodriguez dropped by to check in on things. She started her day at 3:30 a.m., coordinating with first responders, police, and others to receive evacuees – including animals. A nearby coffee shop was preparing hot drinks for the center, and LA Animal Services was set to deliver small cages for house pets.

Francine Kiefer/The Christian Science Monitor

Marnye Langer, general manager of Hansen Dam Horse Park, greets a horse taking refuge at the large animal evacuation site in Lake View Terrace, California, Feb. 4, 2024.

Ms. Rodriguez had also been to the La Tuna Canyon area that morning to explain the weather conditions and build trust with the community about a likely evacuation. “This is an area that has historically experienced mass evacuations in the past, largely because of wildfire,” she says. But not everyone heeds the warnings. As of early afternoon on Monday, no one was at the senior center, though a handful of residents had reportedly gone to stay with family and friends. “There’s evacuation fatigue,” Ms. Rodriguez says.

It’s also an area with a lot of horses. By 11 a.m., a mandatory evacuation had been called, and horse trailers were pulling into the Hansen Dam Horse Park, just a few miles away from the senior center. When it comes to providing emergency shelter for large animals, this was not the first rodeo for Marnye Langer, general manager of the park. Because the site is also used for events and horse shows, it had just under 350 stalls ready and waiting.

This was a big help to Sheila McClure, who operates La Tuna Stables, which boards horses on La Tuna Canyon Road. She worked quickly to unload horses from a trailer and settle them into their stalls. “Better safe than sorry,” she said, as overhead clouds threatened. Last year, the fire department told her she was on the fringe of a mudslide area. But she couldn’t stop to talk. “I’ve got to go back and get more horses.”

Tour guide Lawrence Henderson stops to admire his favorite mural, “Planet Harlem.” Artist Paul Deo’s work is peopled with a galaxy of Black stars –limitless luminaries in politics, entertainment, and resistance. 

Mr. Henderson, a former service member and prison guard, says his eyes light up every time he sees this work of art. “Most murals you see have a particular theme, but this covers everything!” he says during a recent three-hour walking tour. 

“Harlem loves its heroes,” Mr. Henderson says. One way to learn about the neighborhood that inspired artists and writers, activists and poets, is by walking among the streets now named for many of them. The fruits of that inspiration will soon be on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, when it presents “The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism.” Opening Feb. 25, the exhibit will be New York City’s first focus on the renaissance since 1987.

One hundred years after its launch, the Black arts renaissance remains relevant, whether it’s inspiring the next generation of artists or providing a gateway to a proud cultural past. The Met exhibit not only taps into this sense of Black pride, but also draws from institutions with histories as radical as the art it plans to display.

The Met exhibit seeks to reframe the Harlem Renaissance as “the first African American-led movement of international modern art,” the museum said in a press release. Organizers plan to explore how Black artists portrayed city life in the 1920s-1940s – in the early part of the Great Migration, “when millions of African Americans began to move away from the segregated rural South.”

© Estate of Archibald John Motley Jr. All Reserved Rights 2023/Bridgeman Images/Courtesy of Hampton University

“Black Belt” (1934) by Archibald John Motley Jr. features a scene from Chicago. On loan from Hampton University, it will be on display at the Met’s Harlem Renaissance exhibit.

It will feature over 160 works of painting, sculpture, photography, film, and ephemera, some of which are on loan from historically Black colleges and universities such as Clark Atlanta University and Howard University. Danille Taylor, director of Clark Atlanta’s art museum, which donated a quintet of pieces, believes that this exhibit is a commentary not only on Black life, but on legacy as well.

“I think these exhibits are educational. They provide physical evidence of the past, so that the past can be in dialogue with the present, and the present can be in dialogue with the past,” says Dr. Taylor in a phone interview. “[The Harlem Renaissance] had the New Negro, now we have Black Lives Matter, and they’re very much the same. We are human and we demand to be seen.”

Harlem has exhibited that message for generations, through historians, street vendors, and a collective consciousness. “Planet Harlem,” the apple of Mr. Henderson’s eye, is reflective of the adaptability of art beyond the confines of a museum. Mr. Deo himself is cognizant of protecting the people’s art, calling for his mural to gain “landmark status.”

Locke, Hughes, and Harlem’s “Godfather”

It’s hard to imagine that for the first 200 years of its existence, Harlem was undeveloped farmland. And yet, even in its modern incarnation, the city still has tillers – from street vendors to artisans to bakers.

The father of the Harlem Renaissance was Alain Locke. He was a writer and a dreamer. His first anthology, “The New Negro: An Interpretation,” was published in 1925. It was a collection of works from dynamic artists and analysts such as Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen, and W.E.B. Du Bois. As Locke put it in his essay, this was a period of renewal, of self-respect, and of self-dependence among Black people.

Archive Photos/Getty Images

Swing dancers take to the floor at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, circa 1947.

Harlem has always been in the process of healing. Its current battles and sources of pride are all on display during one of Mr. Henderson’s excursions. The Harlem Hospital Mural Pavilion greets onlookers with a trio of images, for example. There’s a picture of Cab Calloway at the Cotton Club; a picture of Black professionals, or as Mr. Henderson puts it, “Black excellence”; and a depiction of the Great Migration. 

In Locke’s anthology, there is an essay from historian and writer Arturo Schomburg titled “The Negro Digs Up His Past.” With so much talk of renaissance and rebirth, Schomburg focuses on another R-word: restoration. “History must restore what slavery took away,” he writes, “for it is the social damage of slavery that the present generations must repair and offset. So among the rising democratic millions we find the Negro thinking more collectively, more retrospectively than the rest.”

Schomburg, whose name is on Harlem’s Center for Research in Black Culture, took his own message to heart. His library of Black works, which grew beyond the capacity of his home, was shared with a division of the New York Public Library that eventually became the Schomburg Center. Years later, his life and legacy continue to grow like a tree planted by the rivers of water.

In the Schomburg Center, there is a lobby named after Langston Hughes, which honors both of Harlem’s heroic historians. The lobby is literally Hughes’ final resting place: His ashes are buried underneath. There is a mural of sorts in the floor – a cosmogram linking Hughes and Schomburg with African ritual ground markings and other measurements. The center says the cosmogram is “weaving a web of connections between people of diverse cultures and backgrounds, the past and the present.” 

During the course of the journey through Harlem, Mr. Henderson also engages tourists with talk about gentrification. The demographics of Harlem are changing. Black residents made up 90% of Central Harlem in the 1980s. In 2021, it was 44%.

An online petition from the New York Interfaith Commission for Housing Equality has a two-word message: “Save Harlem!” The group’s angst stems from an Ivy League institution, Columbia University, and private developers “aiming to destroy and displace thousands of Harlem’s residents.”

Ken Makin

In New York, the Harlem Hospital Mural Pavilion (in November 2023) features images that highlight (from left to right) the Harlem Renaissance, Black achievement, and the Great Migration.

Mr. Henderson stands in front of the Lenox Terrace apartments and talks about the infamous Ellsworth Raymond “Bumpy” Johnson, the “Godfather of Harlem.” Johnson had South Carolina roots as well; he was born in Charleston on All Hallows’ Eve in 1905. The historic terrace was where he called home, and even with his criminal reputation, he was beloved by Harlem.

With the rising cost of housing – and employment – Harlem is hanging on for dear life. A vendor named Divine Styles proudly displays what equates to a curbside bookstore. There is a red, black, and green flag adorning the stand, and the mutuality between the vendor and Mr. Henderson is apparent even before one sees the similarly colored flag on the tour guide’s jacket. The Pan-African flag, also known as the RBG flag, symbolizes unity among people of African descent.

Divine Styles laments that his stand is always on the move, most recently forced out of his old spot by the new Victoria hotel. Nevertheless, true to Harlem, he remains optimistic.

“I love this corner,” he says. “My goal is to publish a book about all of the vendors on 125th Street.”

“Before they’re gone?” Mr. Henderson asks.

“We’re not going to let that happen,” Mr. Styles responds. “There should be a Black preservation – something to protect the vendors.”

“By Any Means Necessary”

It’s hard to fathom that after hundreds of years, there are parts of Harlem that are still underdeveloped. But the tillers persevere. And so does Harlem’s soul.

There is an unfinished mural with a host of celebrity images and four words that Malcolm X made famous – “By Any Means Necessary.” The artists? Pipps and Marissa, the former of whom was seemingly inspired by Gladys Knight, the “Empress of Soul.”

The mural, which was commissioned by a community outreach program, has a quintet of images in which a famous elder is inspiring a young person. There’s Muhammad Ali fitting a boxing glove on a youngster and Serena Williams offering a tennis lesson. On the other side, there’s LeBron James shooting hoops with a young protégé and Simone Biles instructing a future gymnast. At the heart of the piece is Malcolm X, reading a book to a child.

“They wanted to show change-makers in a particular field working with youth, pretty much, you know, passing the torch,” Pipps says. “I want Malcolm to be in the center because he’s from this community.”

Courtesy of Clark Atlanta University Art Museum

“Woman in Blue” (circa 1943) by William Henry Johnson is included in the upcoming Harlem Renaissance exhibit at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is from the Clark Atlanta University Art Museum.

The highlight of the project might have been the community paint day on Nov. 14, when onlookers and other participants were allowed to paint the mural.

“We had small kids here, elderly people, people stopping at the bus stop. Everyone was allowed to paint,” Marissa says. “I love inspiring people and letting them know they can do whatever.”

For this journalist, one of the highlights of the tour is a stop for red velvet cake from Cake Man Raven. His bakery is about four minutes from the “Planet Harlem” mural, and it is a confectionary to the stars. His clients, he says, have included Jay-Z and Whoopi Goldberg. The crimson in that delectable delight is a reminder of the power of migration. Red velvet cake is commonly thought of as a Southern delicacy, and the Cake Man, from Florence, South Carolina, is quick to note his roots. 

As the tour comes to a close, the marquees for the Apollo Theater and the former Victoria Theater are a reminder of Harlem’s imposing history. At night, their neon lights illuminate the sky and one’s imagination. In daylight, the cultural landmarks represent the thin line between struggle and progress.  

A block or so down the street, another legend adept at migration comes to the forefront – Harriet Tubman, whose memorial sits at a fork in the road. It is a striking piece, replete with distinctive roots that represent slavery. Her skirt is decorated with images of enslaved people she led to freedom. It is worth mentioning that Tubman is one of America’s great generals due to her leadership in the Combahee River Raid in the Lowcountry of South Carolina.

The duality of Harlem – of Black struggle and progress – comes through in Mr. Henderson’s closing words. There is lament and love.

“People in Harlem, they complain about things changing, and rightfully so. But we had Harlem for 100 years. We claimed it and we let it slip through our hands,” he says. “There are many reasons. We couldn’t get loans from banks. Systemic racism.

“It hurts to see Black people down and out,” he adds. “Knowing our potential, knowing how much we accomplished.”

As Mr. Henderson departs, his words resonate. So do the words of Locke: “In the very process of being transplanted, the Negro is being transformed.” 

Reuters

Northern Ireland's newly elected First Minister Michelle O'Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly pose for a picture in Belfast, Feb. 3.

With about 180 violent conflicts around the globe – the highest number in more than three decades – the world could use fresh models in peacemaking. Northern Ireland provided such an example 26 years ago with an agreement that ended a sectarian conflict known as “The Troubles.” Last week, the region – which is formally part of the United Kingdom but on the same island as the Republic of Ireland – again showed what it takes to build trust across lingering divides.

A new agreement brokered with Britain not only restored a functioning government after two years of legislative deadlock but also allowed two women – from the main political powers – to be elected as joint executives with equal power and responsibility. And in a highly symbolic step, the “first minister,” Michelle O’Neill, is from Sinn Féin, the party that was once the political arm of the paramilitary Irish Republican Army that fought for unity with Ireland.

But it was really what each woman said that reflects the lessons learned in Northern Ireland since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

In a note of humility, Ms. O’Neill said she was “sorry for all the lives lost during the conflict. Without exception.” She said the restoration of a government is a “moment of equality” and that “wherever we come from, whatever our aspirations, we can and must build our future together.

“As an Irish republican I pledge cooperation and genuine honest effort with those colleagues who are British, of a unionist tradition and who cherish the Union. This is an assembly for all – Catholic, Protestant and dissenter.”

The deputy first minister, Emma Little-Pengelly of the pro-Britain Democratic Unionist Party, said, “We are all born equal – and the people who look on this sitting [of the Northern Ireland Assembly] today demand us to work together.

“The past, with all its horror, can never be forgotten,” she added. “While we are shaped by the past, we are not defined by it.”

Although the question of unification with Ireland remains open, both leaders recognize that, first of all, the people in the region need good government. The two years of nongovernance was triggered by the U.K. exiting the European Union while Ireland stayed in. The Democratic Unionists pulled out of Northern Ireland’s Legislative Assembly until a deal was reached last week on preserving a free trading of goods between Britain and Northern Ireland.

The new government also reflects shifts in attitudes and demographics. In 2022, Catholics outnumbered Protestants in Northern Ireland for the first time, according to census figures. Many new people have moved to the region. More residents do not identify with any religion. The largest group, or 38%, do not see themselves as taking sides in whether the region should remain part of the U.K. or join with Ireland.

“This place we call home, this place we love, North of Ireland or Northern Ireland, where you can be British, Irish, both or none is a changing portrait,” said Ms. O’Neill. The wisdom of the 1998 pact still holds: Let the people, through the broadest and best consensus-making, decide their future – a future not decided by violence.