Uptown New York Kids T-Shirts

J Hood Wright Park, Washington Heights

Rep your hood the duendoDesigns way

legend from NYC

Rep your hood the duendoDesigns way

Rep your hood the duendoDesigns way

Rep your hood the duendoDesigns way

The Harlem Princess is currently holding it down as the Village of Harlem vanguard, the unsung army of beautiful female activists upholding their traditional community role as a nurturer, protector, organizer, facilitator, and spiritual advisor.

Rep your hood the duendoDesigns way

Illustration recalls Harlem's original designation as a village established in 1658 by the Dutch, inherited by African Americans during the "Roaring '20's" (1920') then morphing into the most widely migrated and traveled international Afro-cultural destination

Iconic tile wall of 125th Street subway station in Harlem, the main thoroughfare of the Crossroads of the Diaspora

Illustration depicts the message that it not only takes a village, but that villagers must be vigilant to secure and protect the village to allow it to flourish

Harlem's Native Son is often not a son born to the neighborhood. He is the aggregate character of a community melded from generations of ancestral Africa's children from throughout the Diaspora.

George Washington Bridge Red Roses Facing New Jersey

Rep your hood the duendoDesigns way

This illustration identifies the unity implicit in Harlem's diverse population comprised people from around the world of African-heritage. When Harlem become a predominantly Black community a century ago, around 1920, it was not only the result of the Great Migration, Black Southerners moving north to escape the worst of Jim Crow, during the same era there was a mass migration of Black West Indians to Harlem as well. Marcus Garvey of Jamaica, arriving in Harlem in 1916, is a prime example. Since then, Harlem has been a magnet for Africans across the continent who've migrated to New York City and culturally meshed with there extended Afrocentric siblings

Meshing the concept of Harlem established as a Dutch village 365 years ago to African ancestral villages that housed local tribes with contemporary African American community cultural identity evolved since the Harlem Renaissance

The quintessential 'Angry Black Man' first described in Marvin Gaye's 1971 chart-topping album, Inner City Blues, describing the vicious, unapologetic injustices America has meted out to the Black man since slavery

Illustration depicts sentries guarding the the village from threats and incursions

Harlem Vs Everybody

This illustration speaks to the historical fact that The Big Apple, as the world has come to know New York City, was originally a Harlem slang term spoken exclusively by African Americans

Illustration symbolizes the exclusivity of Harlem and New York City as a destination - there's only one. However, Harlem and New York City are also welcoming and inclusive, demonstrated by the wide diversity of humanity that reside there in relative harmony and visit often from around the globe

The Big Apple Klub insignia is a graphic symbol of the universal, cosmopolitan urban identity of New York City shared by millions around the world that embrace diversity and unity

Rep your hood the duendoDesigns way

Rep your hood the duendoDesigns way

Illustration depicts iconic location in Central Harlem, Malcom X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) at 126th Street, Crossroads of the Diaspora

The Mandarin duck in Central Park has become the ultimate New Yorker: fashionable, a little aloof, not afraid of the spotlight and famous in a New York minute.