#2: The New York Soul

So we’ll be totally honest – both Salty and I were so excited to complete our challenge to make a “quick buck” this week but ran into two unforeseen issues:

1.  New York City winter finally decided to come around…and the coldest weather hit just recently so the idea of standing outside to try and make a pretty penny was sounding less and less smart…
2.  We had a few people ask if there were legality issues with trying to sell things randomly on the street, so we had to give ourselves more time to look into that (still TBD)

But luckily, we had another challenge on our list (yes we have we have a full spreadsheet of ideas covering all genres, New York boroughs, levels of difficulty….) that was indoors and definitely wasn’t illegal: singing along with a gospel choir at a charismatic African American church. And what better weekend to do that than one honoring the late (and great) Martin Luther King, Jr. and what better place than in the heart of Harlem?

So we’re sorry to disappoint if you were awaiting with bated breath on how we fared in boosting our weekly earnings, but instead Salty, her boyfriend (our first guest star! we can call him "Rebel") and I took the 3-train ride uptown to Harlem (it was my first time-- Salty and Rebel had both been for a delicious meal at Red Rooster before…), decked out in our Sunday finest (including hats!). 

The experience was both what we expected...

• An amazing gospel choir with an unbelievable soprano
• A “liturgical dance” with one female dancer who could be the next Beyonce
• An energy that is truly out of this world (even Salty and I felt inspired  to throw in a few “Amens!”)

…and what we hadn’t expected:

• The “meet and greet” where both Salty and I received endless compliments on our hats, and I’d say literally almost every member of the congregation came and gave us the warmest greetings and hugs (I even got a double kiss on the cheek!)
• Not going to lie…not as many hats as we expected!! We’d seen the movies and had imagined many more, but doesn’t mean we didn’t see some real beauties
• A two and a half hour long service….

So week #2’s challenge (our edited version) is complete! This challenge not only took us to new parts of the city (for me) but also to meet new people (probably the most number of people we’ve hugged or shaken hands with in a single day). And that’s the beauty of this city, really. There are so many cultures, so many points of view but there are places where all of those can come together in a rather beautiful harmony. I now only wish we had a recording of Rebel singing bass, Salty on alto, and me on soprano…talk about harmony!

Next week’s challenge:  The New York Melting Pot...this cultural eye-opener is leading us to our next challenge. To teach each other about our own "motherlands"! Stay tuned...