Take the subway north under Lexington Avenue and watch those street numbers ratchet up and up. 59th, 68th, 77th, 86th, 96th and 103rd. Before you know it, you're across 110th and into Harlem - until recently, a land to which the stranger did not go. Their fears were certainly exaggerated, but you couldn't really blame them - if ever an area suffered from a bad rep, it was Harlem.
The world, and much of New York, saw Harlem as a depressed and dangerous place. The convolutions of race and suspicion twisted things still further, and soon Harlem was left entirely to its own devices - cut adrift, ignored and forgotten about by all but devotees of Sylvia's soul food.
Certainly pride remained within Harlem itself, but the former glories of a cultural renaissance in the wake of the first World War, were never enough to draw the visitors back in numbers. And from being the sophisticated heart of New York, Harlem became a mysterious no-go area for even the most well-disposed of pale visitors. It is also, of course, just at the other end of Manhattan, the scene of such devastation on September 11th.
Next stop, 125th Street. This is where former president Bill Clinton now has his offices - a sensible move for the man they refer to as America's first black president. His choice of venue is the biggest official endorsement yet that Harlem is back in business, thanks largely to investment which followed its designation as one of Clinton's "empowerment zones".
And what was once unthinkable has now happened - corporate America has set up shop in Harlem. Clinton's office block is named for the first black member of New York's city council, congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. It was here, back in August, that I joined the party as Harlem welcomed Clinton with a warmth that was irresistible - perhaps the biggest cheer coming for cock-a-hoop congressman Charles B. Rangel, when he said that "the people who were kicking President Clinton are the same people who started off by kicking us". A huge sign read: "Harlem welcomes President Clinton" and only a dozen or so black panthers kicked up. They had their reasons, but were quickly told to shut up by a fiercesome huddle of old ladies who could see this really was a big day for Harlem.
If Bill Clinton stands on the street outside his office and looks across to his right, he'll see the Teresa Hotel where Malcolm X once rallied his followers, and where Fidel Castro famously stayed on his UN trip in 1960. Further across on 125th Street, between 7th and 8th, he'll find the Apollo Theatre - scene of some of the greatest music ever heard. And not far from there, he might possibly be lured into The Greater Refuge Temple - where on a Sunday morning he will hear Pastor Bonner (overheard as Packie Bonner on a noisy street) and 125 souls singing songs that look beyond Gap, The Body Shop and even former presidents for their inspiration. This is the home of the Harlem Gospel Choir, best known to us for helping U2 to find what they're looking for.
"Harlem is not so isolated now," says Allen Bailey, the choir's director. "I remember I've had people call me and say they were coming to New York, and where would they find Harlem? Now we have Disney and CNN! It brings in more people, and now we have a lot of Europeans moving in. We have two million visitors a year.
"And people in Harlem are just like any other people in the world. They work hard and try to bring up their families. They are law-abiding citizens; they are God-fearing, just like any other race of people."
Allen Bailey, like most citizens of New York, has a history that would take the eye out of your head. Working with Don King, he organised the pre-fight entertainment for "The Rumble in the Jungle", flying James Brown, B.B. King and others to Kinshasa for the Ali/Foreman epic. He has also worked on the promotional side with Isaac Hayes, Prince, the Commodores and Michael Jackson, and when I ask him about the Apollo Theatre, it turns out that he used to sing in it - with Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers! Bu it was his work with Dr Martin Luther King which led directly to his many current projects and, in particular, the Harlem Gospel Choir.
"Back then, I was involved in registering people to vote. We did this throughout the South, and we went around the neighbourhoods to teach people how to vote. That was my campaign. And gospel music really took off during that Civil Rights era when bad things were happening. Churches were being blown up by the Ku Klux Klan, and people were being hung on trees. All we had was our religion, and the music kept people inspired and focused on our bigger goal that one day we will overcome.
"And so the choir is based on the principles of Dr King. Bringing people together. The theme of our tours is bringing nation and people together and giving something back. We use this vehicle - this choir - to do so."
Perhaps bizarrely, the Harlem Gospel Choir was not actually formed in a church. Bailey set it up in 1988 at The Cotton Club, where members were singers from various churches coming together to sing the repertoires of Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington. But although these were semi-secular beginnings, these days the ministry comes first.
"We are not entertainers," says Bailey, "we are missionaries for Christ, and people will understand that when they see the show. You'll get our message regardless of your religious or ethnic background, and what we try to tell you is that we all worship one God, and that we all want to bring people together. We all worship the same person.
"Yes, you always find that choirs try to outdo each other. Who is the loudest. Who can praise the hardest. Who can stomp the floor and clap the longest . But when you come and see the Harlem Gospel Choir, you really see what happens in the black church."
The reputation of the choir inevitably brings it well beyond the confines of the church and into regular contact with secular music, secular venues and secular audiences. They have performed with U2, toured with the Chieftains, and now they are set to do their thing at the Olympia in Dublin - an undoubtedly secular venue with a bar at the back. "Well you cannot assume that the people who go to these venues don't have God in their life. You can't say that. Every Sunday, after church in Harlem, people go to these gospel brunches in places like BB's or the Cotton Club. People are just people, they enjoy the music.
"People in the choir are not necessarily religious people either. We started out more community-based than church based, but we try to bring some of these young men and women into the church. But the choir now is first and foremost a ministry. We work with children's agencies all over the world, raising funds for them. We believe that children are our future."
So does Whitney Houston apparently, but I let it pass wondering what exactly Irish audiences might have in store when the Harlem Gospel Choir comes to town? Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard is a long way from Dame Street, the Greater Refuge Temple is a long way from the Olympia Theatre. And in those remarkably changed circumstances, will everyone in the house, believer and non-believer, feel something of that gospel and that Harlem spirit ?
"No question about it. You just can't come to our shows without jumping up on stage with us. And the Irish are very spiritual people. When they get going, they get going. They will come away with a different perspective on what gospel is. We take you from one end of the gospel to the other - traditional gospel, gospel jazz, gospel blues - the whole nine yards. And we don't mind crossing over because we take you across with us."
The Harlem Gospel Choir plays Dublin's Olympia Theatre on October 10th and 13th as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival. Details on tel: 01-6772600; fax: 01-6772611; website: www.eircomtheatrefestival.com