• Known as the "Queen of Swing," 98-year-old Norma Miller grew up in an apartment behind Harlem's legendary Savoy Ballroom and eventually performed on its stage. She now regularly teaches the Lindy Hop at a Swedish dance camp that draws some 5,000 attendees in the summer. It's a place, she says, where students “come to inherit the soul of black dancing." [NY Times]
• For its September issue, Essence assembled "Black fashion royalty"–designer Dapper Dan, supermodel Naomi Campbell, photographer Jamel Shabazz, and former Vogue editor André Leon Talley–to shoot the cover story, which showcases the latest Gucci-Dapper Dan collection in Harlem. [Essence]
• Two Harlem restaurants made it onto Food & Wine's list of "40 Most Important Restaurants of the Past 40 Years." Drum roll, please: Red Rooster and Sylvia's. [Food & Wine]
• A developer surprised the Sugar Hill community by planning a methadone clinic at 730 St. Nicholas Avenue, but after local protests, its license was denied. [Patch.com]
• Swizz Beatz dropped a few pairs of free sneakers around Harlem–it's part of a collaboration with Reebok–and filmed the results. [@therealswizz via Instagram]
• A very cute harbor seal was captured sunning itself in Inwood earlier this week. [Gothamist]
• A grad student from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill gives free walking tours about the Muslim history of Harlem, including the Hotel Theresa, where Malcolm X met with Fidel Castro in 1960. [NY Times]
• New Kids on the Block are coming to the Apollo for one big night to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their hit "Hangin' Tough." [EW]
• The city just made a deal to preserve more than 160 affordable apartments in two Harlem buildings. [Patch]
• If you work with someone from Bohemia, the real estate company that specializes in properties above 96th Street, chances are high they're an actor, singer or dancer–a majority of the firm's 120 agents have degrees in the performing arts. [NY Times]
Photo: "View of the Savoy Ballroom at night, on Lenox Avenue between 140th and 141st Streets, in Harlem, New York, circa 1950" from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
