About the Schomburg Center
Founded in 1925 as the Negro Literature, History and Prints Division of the 135th Street Branch Library by Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is one of the leading cultural institutions in the world devoted to the preservation of materials focused on African-American, African Diaspora, and African experiences. Recognized for its prominence in digital humanities, scholarly research, and vast collection spanning over 10 million items, the Schomburg Center won the National Medal for Museum and Library Service in 2015. Today, the Schomburg serves as a space that encourages lifelong education and exploration with diverse programs that illuminate the richness of black history and culture, and in 2017 it was named a National Historic Landmark.
For more information, please visit www.schomburgcenter.org
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: Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Jr., and Korey Wise were all teenagers when they were wrongfully convicted and served time for the 1989 brutal r**e of a white female jogger inside New York City’s Central Park.
The Center’s materials offer an in-depth look at their legal case and their journey to clear their names. The collection includes a historic conversation with Salaam, Richardson, and Santana, Jr., who are known today as part of the , a few hours after the unveiling of the Gate of the Exonerated at Central Park on December 19, 2022 and an invitation to the event. The day also marked the 20th anniversary of all five being cleared of all charges.
The park entrance at 110th Street between Fifth Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard honors all who have been wrongfully convicted.
https://www.nypl.org/blog/2023/02/01/exonerated-five-depth-look-their-journey-justice?utm_campaign=schomburgsocialmedia&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social
"Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly". ~ Langston Hughes
to poet Langston Hughes (1901-1967) who was born . Our Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division has some of his poems and unpublished works in their collections. Our Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference holds materials by and about him in their collections as well.
? A portion of Hughes's ashes are buried beneath the Cosmogram in our lobby.
Created by Houston Conwill (1947-2016), the Cosmogram is an over 1,100 square foot terrazzo flooring. Conwill drew his inspiration from Hughes's poem The Negro Speaks of Rivers.
https://on.nypl.org/40gMkEg
Closing Tuesday, Feb. 28. Don’t miss our exhibition Boundless:10 Years of Seeding Black Comic Futures.
Boundless illuminates the long history of Black comics and sequential art creators and their motivations to render humor, justice, irony, and futurism in Black aesthetic and liberatory practices from the Golden Age of comic books (1938–1956) to the present.
https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/boundless-10-years-seeding-black-comic-futures
Thursday, February 9 at 6 PM: Be a part of a series launch event celebrating the new partnership between Howard University and Columbia University to uplift the future of publishing in Black Studies.
The evening will feature welcome remarks from Howard University president Wayne A.I. Frederick and the founding chair of Columbia University’s African American and African Diaspora Studies Department, Farah Jasmine Griffin, followed by a conversation between Columbia College dean Josef Sorett and Howard University economist Omari Swinton.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/black-lives-in-the-diaspora-past-present-future-tickets-498766332527?aff=schomburgsocialmedia
Happening TONIGHT, January 24 at 6:30 PM: Join us online for our annual Lecture and Conversation.
Dr. Deborah Willis, author of The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship, will be in conversation with Director Joy L. Bivins.
http://ow.ly/IamW50MznFB
Happening now through 8:30 PM: Today only. View our pop-up display featuring items from our collections about our founder (1874-1938). He was born , Jan. 24. Plus, see materials from Lawrence D. Reddick’s World War II Project.
At 6:30 PM, join us for our lecture and conversation with Dr. Deborah Willis, author of The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship. A book signing and dessert reception follow.
http://ow.ly/YTtj50Mziec
to our founder who was born , January 24.
Mr. Schomburg is widely associated with the word Afroborinqueño—a person who is of Black and Puerto Rican descent.
Mr. Schomburg celebrated both of his heritages and frequently used the word to describe himself.
Journalist Gustavo E. Urrutia used the term in a 1936 column about Mr. Schomburg for El Diario De la Marina. Researchers can read the column from the newspaper on microfilm. Our Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division holds the Arthur Alfonso Schomburg Papers.
A portion of the archive includes correspondence between Mr. Schomburg and Urrutia. Additionally, our Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division has the correspondence on microfilm.
Find out more occasions Mr. Schomburg inspired American and African Diasporic culture.
https://www.nypl.org/blog/2023/01/10/4-occasions-arturo-schomburg-inspired-american-african-diasporic-culture?utm_campaign=schomburgsocialmedia&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social
Happening TONIGHT, January 23 around 7 PM: Join us online for the talkback following the screening of excerpts of the documentary Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World. The discussion includes Chuck D and invited guests.
Produced in partnership with PBS.
http://ow.ly/f9oF50Mymzx
Photo: Lisa Herndon
! A.J. Muhammad, head reference librarian of our Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division interviewed Nuyorican Gothic's Playwright Desi Moreno-Penson in the article “Does the Bronx Have A Taste For Monsters?” for Duke University’s publication Liquid Blackness: Journal of Aesthetics and Black Studies.
The article is part of a special issue co-edited by Tashima Thomas, an alumna of the Center's Scholars-in-Residence program, dedicated to scholarly explorations of Afro Gothic.
https://read.dukeupress.edu/liquid-blackness/article/6/2/142/319814/Does-the-Bronx-Have-a-Taste-for-Monsters-Nuyorican
