MEET TOYA

My name is Toya and I’m known as Toya From Harlem, aka your #HistorianHomie, aka the Anthony Bourdain of history.⁣ I’m a writer, social media manager, plant mom, tattoo enthusiast, trap griot, podcaster, and blogger. I’m the founder of ToyaFromHarlem.com and host of That Wasn’t In My Textbook podcast. 

I was born and raised in Harlem, where I went to elementary and middle schools founded by  Black people, that create predominately Black spaces for Black children, with Black teachers, (RARE I know.) They were each founded by people who wanted to give back to their community and who were not satisfied with how students of colors’ history were left out of traditional curriculums. So those formative years is when I began to fall in love with history because I learned so much about my history all year round at a young age. Fast forward, I graduated from Wesleyan University with a BA in African-American Studies and 5 years later, I went to get a Masters in Public Administration, where I took a US history class that reignited my love for history. 

It was after these two experiences that I decided to take ownership of the historian title, but I wanted to put my own fun, raw, non-snooze fest spin on history.  It was then that I started a blog, toyafromharlem.com, back in 2014 after coming back from graduate school and noticing the rapid rate that my favorite Black-owned stores, restaurants, and most importantly, historical places disappeared. My blog transformed into a place to uncover historical places you pass by every day, books to read, dope art by people of color, safe POC places to check out and cultural things to do- oh my life is sprinkled in here as well. Since that time, and since I moved to Los Angeles, my platform covers the history of cities and places all over the world because- history is everywhere.  I am most proud of my ‘Recreated photos of Black icon men in history’ article that was published on BET.com because it gave people insight into the fun, creative and nontraditional ways to learn history.

THAT WASN’T IN MY TEXTBOOK

This summer (2020), I expanded my blog by launching My That Wasn’t In My Textbook, a biweekly podcast that helps us uncover the things we always wished we learned from that boring bulky textbook. Once the pandemic hit and many folks started to realize that we’re not only fighting coronavirus but racism- which has been around for a much longer time- it sparked me to finally start that podcast idea I was talking about for years.

It only felt right to start my first episode on a holiday celebrating the emancipation of those who had been enslaved in the United States called Juneteenth. So on June 19th, 2020, I released my first episode called on The History of Juneteenth: 6 Facts You Should Know About Juneteenth. Each episode feels as if you’re sitting in one of those free-spirited classrooms where you sit at a circle table, talk freely, and don't get grades. We learn together, have dope guests schooling us on a few things, discuss out-of-the-textbook topics, talk about lies our teachers taught us, and provide unfiltered history and opinions - you know, the ones you might get in trouble for in class.

Basically, if MTV Decoded, the History Channel, and Anthony Bourdain spent their time debunking history and had a love child, it would be this podcast - That Wasn’t In My Textbook. #ThatWasntInMyTextbook

Toya, also known as Toya From Harlem, lives, works and streams her podcast from Los Angeles, CA. Toya is available to travel for speaking engagements.

To learn more about Toya, please visit toyafromharlem.com