Detail of the exterior of Ephesus Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Their stops include landmark churches, the Morris-Jumel Mansion, Striver's Row, the Studio Museum in Harlem, Sylvan Terrace, and even the vacant upper floors of the Division of Motor Vehicles building, where the Alhambra Theater once echoed with the sounds of the legendary big bands.

Along the way, distinguished guests give their first-hand accounts of significant chapters in Harlem's history. Hartman and Lewis stop to speak with Marcus Garvey, Jr. about his father's mission to lead the "New Negro" into an era of self-pride, and with Attallah Shabazz as she shares memories of her father, Malcolm X, whom she knew as a funny, empathetic dad. Reverend Calvin O. Butts III talks about how Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. built the Abyssinian Baptist Church into a model institution for social activism, and traces the father-to-son influence that drove Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. to become a major political force.

Detail of mural at Minton's Playhouse.

At Mother A.M.E. Zion Church, Dabney Montgomery recounts its tradition as a "freedom church" that participated in the Underground Railroad and made its pulpit available to speakers such as Sojourner Truth, Paul Robeson, and Shirley Chisholm.

No story of Harlem would be complete without a chapter on the Harlem Renaissance, and A WALK THROUGH HARLEM celebrates this literary and intellectual movement with several of its modern heirs. Joining the program's host and guide at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is Professor Kate Rushin, poet and Harlem Renaissance scholar, who describes the movement's origins and ideals and gives a moving reading of Langston Hughes's first published poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," on the spot where his ashes are interred. They also chat with Donna Mussenden VanDerZee, widow of the Harlem Renaissance's great photographer James VanDerZee, and with A'Lelia Bundles, great-granddaughter of A'Lelia Walker, whose legendary Dark Tower salon was an intellectual epicenter of the Harlem Renaissance.

Minton's Playhouse sign.

At the landmark nightclub Minton's, jazz pianist and scholar Dr. Billy Taylor talks about the jazz legends who made musical history in Harlem -- and about his own big break there. Other cultural heroes on hand are Dr. Walter Turnbull, founder of the renowned Boys Choir of Harlem, and Harlem-born and raised Arthur Mitchell, who explains how the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. was his inspiration to found Dance Theatre of Harlem as a way to give back to the community.