WORK AND PLAY: Nate Berkus designed the lounging area (above) in the brownstone that houses Higginsen’s Mama Foundation for the Arts. (David Rosenzweig)
The area is also where Higginsen stores her vinyl collection, including records by her sister, Doris Troy (above). (David Rosenzweig)
A few doors down is the brownstone where she lives; it features period details throughout, including on the parlor floor (above). (David Rosenzweig)
A Verna Hart painting given to her by Lionel Hampton (above) (David Rosenzweig)
‘There’s been a Higginsen on this block for almost 100 years,” says Vy Higginsen from the cozy front parlor of her Harlem brownstone.
Originally belonging to her grandmother, the 103-year-old brownstone has been home to the theater producer, philanthropist, writer and media personality, her husband and collaborator, Ken Wydro, and their daughter, Ahmaya Knoelle, since 2000.
Located on 126th Street just off Lenox Avenue, the four-story building is just one of three on the block that Higginsen owns. Her grandparents bought it in the 1930s for less than $20,000, and it’s remained in the family ever since. The second was purchased by her enterprising parents (a minister from Barbados and a real estate entrepreneur) in the early 1940s and is currently being converted into rentals. Higginsen and Wydro purchased the third in 1998.
That brownstone had been deserted when they bought it, and Higginsen remembers walking in the front door and being able to see the sky through a hole in the roof.
After two years of renovations, it became the home of Mama Foundation for the Arts, Higginsen and Wydro’s nonprofit dedicated to involving neighborhood youth in the gospel music of Harlem’s past. Last year, celebrity interior designer Nate Berkus renovated two floors of the foundation’s brownstone: the stage/rehearsal space and an open gathering area for parents of the teen performers.
In Higgensen’s own home, which boasts five bedrooms and four bathrooms sprawling over 3,600 square feet, there’s plenty of room for the whole family. A garden floor-through apartment is for Ahmaya Knoelle, while the parlor floor has two living spaces, one of which includes a small open kitchen.
Artwork floods the walls of these living spaces: One, a Jacob Lawrence print that depicts three women ironing outdoors, reminds Higginsen of her grandmother’s struggle.
“She used to do what she called ‘busting suds,’ using those old-fashioned irons,” says Higginsen. “Whenever I look at that, I think of her.”
A small white couch that belonged to her grandmother sits in the back parlor, while a crystal vase of her mother-in-law’s remains empty, simply to admire. “This particular vase would sit on her dining table, and I would always look at it. One day she just said, ‘Here.’ I don’t put anything in it; it’s just sentimental.”
In the foyer, an abstract painting of a piano player immersed in his keys done by Harlem-born Verna Hart holds another memory. At a charity auction 25 years ago, Higginsen found herself in a bidding war with vibraphonist Lionel Hampton. When she finally gave up and he won, the legendary bandleader presented the painting to her. “It was his intention to buy it for me all along, and I’m just bringing the price up,” she says, laughing. “I treasure it because of him.”
Higginsen now uses an image of the painting on the flyer for her soul music revue “Sing Harlem Sing!” directed by Wydro; there are two upcoming afternoon performances (April 13 and May 4) at the West 127th Street Dempsey Theater, where the couple’s long-running first show, “Mama, I Want To Sing,” runs every Saturday at 5 p.m.
The revue is inspired by the time she spent as a DJ in the 1970s for local station WBLS — housed in the building now occupied by the restaurant Red Rooster. Coincidentally, it’s where Higginsen’s Gospel for Teens choir, led by Ahmaya Knoelle (who also plays the lead in both shows at the Dempsey), perform every Sunday amid a buffet of Marcus Samuelsson classics like yard-bird fried chicken, Swedish meatballs and a smorgasbord of other soul and Swedish delights.
Higginsen credits her sister, the late Doris Troy, for getting her into radio. “She would make me get up and say, ‘Talk.’ I would say any old thing that came into my mind.”
Troy — best known for writing and performing the 1963 hit song “Just One Look” — was the inspiration for “Mama” (first produced in 1983) which details Troy’s rise to fame while growing up in a religious household.
Their father also “believed in owning property,” Higginsen remembers. A belief he certainly passed down. Before moving back to Harlem, Higginsen owned another brownstone on 71st Street, near Central Park West.
“The problem was there was no rest for the weary,” she explains of that Upper West Side space. She and her husband lived and worked out of that building, producing the original Broadway production of August Wilson’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” and “Mama, I Want To Sing.” The success of the latter show led the couple to create the Mama Foundation for the Arts, in 1998.
“I sleep there, but I live here,” Higginsen says, referring to her primary residence and the foundation, which actually feels like a home with spacious living areas, a generous rehearsal space and Higginsen’s top-floor office. It houses her extensive collection of records, including her sister’s 1970 self-titled album featuring George Harrison and Eric Clapton, along with early Whitney Houston albums and those of her mother, Cissy.
“The music wasn’t manufactured with Dionne Warwick and Cissy Houston; the music was the voice,” says Higginsen. “Voices, we discover, are so individual. With the teens, I tell them: You’re learning how to sing from the radio, but you’re singing somebody else’s song. You don’t know what sounds your own body makes. It’s a process of finding your sound and your voice.”
And she also imparts the musical and cultural history of the neighborhood to the 50 to 75 teens, who are selected through an audition process each semester.
“The reason my parents came to Harlem is because it was a hotbed of music, culture and opportunity. That’s the Harlem I’d like to restore,” says Higginsen.
Vy Higginsen’s
favorite things
* A Leroy Campbell painting depicting women picking cotton in a field
* A Verna Hart painting given to her by Lionel Hampton
* Her African art collection
* Antique chairs and a crystal vase from her mother-in-law
* A vinyl record collection from her years on the radio
* Photos and records from her sister, Doris Troy
* Her Emmy Award