Kara Young spends a rare day off brunching with her family in Harlem and popping into beauty supply stores along 125th Street.
Kara Young spends a rare day off brunching with her family in Harlem and popping into beauty supply stores along 125th Street.
Kara Young spends a rare day off brunching with her family in Harlem and popping into beauty supply stores along 125th Street.
Many actors have to leave their support systems behind when they set out to follow their Broadway dreams.
But Kara Young, a Tony Award-winning actress who grew up in Harlem — and lives just three blocks from where she was born — has been able to share her success with the community that raised her.
“It’s a super beautiful community,” Ms. Young said of Spanish Harlem, the neighborhood on the east side of Manhattan known for its Puerto Rican culture. She attended elementary school and high school there after her parents immigrated from Belize.
“But at the same time,” she added, “I recognize that I’ve been privileged to be able to stay in the community I grew up in. Gentrification is real.”
It was at the 92nd Street Y, she said, that she first became hooked on theater. Her older brother, Klay, was taking a mime class as part of an after-school program — and a 5-year-old Ms. Young knew she wanted in.
Soon she was performing with the other students around Manhattan, and “that set off my imagination,” she said.