The Poignant For 12/22/09: Boys & Girls Choir of Harlem Is No More

Photo from Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

Just like Yankees' hats and Blimpie's sandwiches, the Boys & Girls Choir of Harlem is a long time staple of New York City.

But unlike those two other prime characteristics, the Boys & Girls Choir of Harlem now "was" a staple of the Big Apple.

The choir is no more:

But this year, the boys are nowhere to be found. Last week, Terrance Wright, a 39-year-old choir alumnus, picked up a microphone in front of the altar of Metropolitan Community United Methodist Church in Harlem, the choir’s last home, and delivered news that surprised few people but saddened many.

“Tell the people. Let it be known,” Mr. Wright said, glistening and exhausted after leading a Christmas concert by former singers in the choir. “There is no Boys and Girls Choir of Harlem.”

The choir’s last official performance was in 2007, around the time of the death of its founder, Walter J. Turnbull. But no one ever announced that it was gone. Board members and alumni had hoped to revive it, but they acknowledged last week that they had not had any success.

Money is the obvious issue to the reason why the choir is stunningly gone, with this darkest of moment in its history being possibly the catalyst for the nail going into the coffin:

The choir’s demise as a functional organization was a result of many factors, but everyone agrees it was set in motion by a single episode: an accusation by a 14-year-old boy in 2001 that a counselor on the choir’s staff had sexually abused him. The counselor eventually was sentenced to two years in prison.

The accusation and the scandal that followed — Dr. Turnbull did not report the claim to the authorities and allowed the counselor to continue working with children — set off a chain of events that led the city to oust the choir in 2006 from the Choir Academy of Harlem, the school building that had been its home. That, in turn, deepened the choir’s already serious financial problems.

A staple of Harlem, a staple of New York City, and a state of just American in general, especially in the black community, no longer in existence.

And the lack of coverage of this stunning ending feels like the choir never existed.