Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts

Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts (born c. 1978) is an American writer and historian from Houston, Texas, who graduated from Harvard in 2000 and was a Fulbright Scholar in the UK. She is best known for her 2011 book Harlem Is Nowhere, a New York Times Notable Book and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, exploring Harlem's cultural and historical significance amid gentrification; her essays appear in The New York Times, Harper's, and others. A Whiting Award winner (2012) and associate professor at Pratt Institute, she continues active projects like curating at Weeksville Heritage Center in 2026.