This event has been postponed, due to inclement weather.
The Langston Hughes Residence/I, Too Arts Collective
20 West 127th Street, Harlem, NY
Sugar Hill Luminaries Lawn
155th Street and Edgecombe Avenue, Harlem, NY
2018
Radicals, Rhythm, Religion, and West Indians
Herb Boyd, Jeffrey B. Perry, and Others TBD
A wide-ranging talk, focusing on pages 34 to 79 of The Harlem Reader, that demonstrates the extraordinary growth of Harlem as a site of political, spiritual, and cultural influence.
The Terri Lyne Carrington Quartet plays reimagined takes on Duke Ellington’s “Money Jungle.” Through her unique vocal stylings, Melba Joyce presents the classic sound of jazz. The Sugar Hill Quartet continues the swinging Harlem tradition.
Four-o-nine Edgecombe Avenue was home to the entire early Black leadership of the NAACP—James Weldon Johnson, W.E.B. Du Bois, Walter White, and Roy Wilkins. Other residents included Aaron Douglass, Louise Thompson-Patterson, Clarence Cameron White, Pura Belpre, and many other prominent individuals.
Five-fifty-five Edgecombe Avenue, five blocks to the north, sits on the corner of 160th Street and Edgecombe, which was recently co-named Paul Robeson Boulevard/Count Basie Place to honor just two of the building’s many famous residents: If one wanted to add the names of other notable denizens to this signpost, one would very quickly run out of space, because many African American achievers in sociology, psychology, medicine, music, sports, and theater lived there. The level of activism in both dwellings was so high that it resonated internationally. Paul Robeson’s performance on the battlefield during the Spanish Civil War stopped the fighting momentarily. Du Bois, a true Renaissance Man, was known, to some, as the father of Pan Africanism. Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clark developed the groundbreaking Doll Test that revealed the negative effects of white supremacy on Black children. Their neighbor at 409, Thurgood Marshall, used the Clark’s findings in his arguments in Brown v. Board of Education. Kenneth was also a Civil Rights activist: He was sought by Robert F. Kennedy to advise him and, ultimately, his brother, John, on matters of desegregation and voting rights.
Co-produced by Jamal Joseph, Mike Tyner, and While We Are Still Here, with a script by Herb Boyd and Karen D. Taylor, this film is the definitive documentary of 409 and 555 Edgecombe Avenue, two socioeconomically mixed buildings that are important to the cultural and political histories of not just Harlem, but to the world.
POSTPONED: New Date Forthcoming
The Dwyer Cultural Center
258 St. Nicholas Avenue, Harlem, NY
Regina Anderson
Monday, February 26th | 6:30pm
Garnette Cadogan
Joe Louis
Saturday, October 7th | 4pm
Sister’s Uptown Bookstore
1942 Amsterdam Avenue, Harlem, NY
Earlier Harlem from Alexander Hamilton to Marcus Garvey
Herb Boyd
A discussion by Herb Boyd, covering the first nine chapters of The Harlem Reader (pages 1-33).
Sundays In March | 7-8pm
In Cyberspace
Scheduled Events 2017-18
April 3rd-May 7th | 12-5pm, Monday-Saturday
The Langston Hughes Residence/I, Too Arts Collective
22 West 127th Street, Harlem, NY
2017-2018 When Sugar Hill Was Sweet:
Looking Back, Moving Forward
Terri Lyne Carrington Melba Joyce
Film Premiere of
In the Face of What We Remember:
Oral Histories of 409 and 555 Edgecombe Avenue
Sliding Scale: $20.00, $50,00, $75.00 (All proceeds support While We Are Still Here’s programming.)
Through captivating oral histories, a few Harlem elders share their memories, opinions, and analyses about two landmarked dwellings.
Echoes of the Eras II
Terri Lyne Carrington Quartet
Melba Joyce
The Sugar Hill Quartet
Emcee, Sharief Abdus-Salaam of WKCR Radio
—and—
Book Signing and Reading by author Herb Boyd
Kicking off a Seven-Month-Long Community Read
inspired by One Book/One City, a project of the American Library Association
THE JAZZ FOUNDATION OF AMERICA (JFA) IS A SUPPORTER OF THIS EVENT
Sugar Hill Luminaries Lawn
155th Street and Edgecombe Avenue, Harlem, NY
BRING YOUR BLANKETS. SPECIAL SEATING WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR THE DISABLED.
Friday, April 27th | 7:00pm
The Miller Theater | 2960 Broadway (at 116th Street) | Tickets GO ON SALE APRIL 1, 2018
“At Last (A Quilt of Etta James)”
Ife Felix
Heavyweights and Heavy Hitters: The Sports Elite of Harlem
Playthell Benjamin, Samori Benjamin
Suggested Donation: $20.00
Inspired by Arthur Ashe’s essay, “The Harlem Rens,” in The Harlem Reader, this discussion and multimedia presentation will laud the famed athletes of Harlem’s yesteryear, some of whom resided at 409 and 555 Edgecombe Avenue.
Rosemari Mealy
Herb Boyd
After the Flypaper: Life In Harlem In Images and Words (1955-2017)
Opening Reception April 7, 2-4
directly following “East Side, West Side: El Barrio and the Hill” (See description below)
Inspired by the classic photo essay, The Sweet Flypaper of Life: Harlem In Black and White, by Roy DeCarava and Langston Hughes, this exhibit extends the visual-literary exchange that the two men began in the 1950s. The “Harlem-centric” works by poets that include Calvin Forbes and Patricia Spears Jones, and visual artists, such as Dawoud Bey and Ife Felix will be shown alongside other renowned individuals’ works.
In partnership with the I, Too Arts Collective
The Schomburg Center for Research In Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, Harlem, NY
Saturday, November 4th | 2pm
Countee Cullen Library
104 West 136th Street, Harlem, NY
Facebook Discussions
Led by a discussion leader on Facebook, at Reading Across Harlem’s page (@whilewearestillhere), participants will share their impressions of the following excerpts, in a public dialogue.
Page
108 March 11, Garnette Cadogan, “Upon Arriving in Harlem,” Gordon Parks
164 March 18, TBD, “Hostess of Harlem,” Claude McKay
219 March 25, Rosemari Mealy, “Minister Malcolm X,” Malcolm X
Regina Anderson
Saturday, November 4th | 2-4pm
East Side, West Side: El Barrio and the Hill
Sanchez's contributions to The Harlem Reader offer coming-of-age snapshots of life in this famed neighborhood. Willie and Sister Sonia converse with Leroy Baylor about growing up in different parts of Harlem, during different eras, and how Harlem influenced their writing and worldview. This discussion is a wonderful convergence of three people, who were raised here. They will surely share new, forgotten, and earth-shattering memories.
Theater-In-Black In Harlem
Voza Rivers and Others TBD
—and—
“Resonating Resistance: Voices of 409 and 555 Edgecombe Avenue”a performance piece, directed by Daniel Carlton, featuring a few of Harlem's great actors.
This program ties into the pieces in The Harlem Reader by Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Wendy Smith, and Laurence Holder (pages 104 to 107 and 114 to 131).
The history of theater in Harlem has been long and illustrious. This conversation will touch upon the legacies of theater companies that include W.E.B. Du Bois and Regina Anderson’s KRIGWA; Langston Hughes and Louise Thompson’s Suitcase Theater; and the famed American Negro Theater on the development of successive companies that include those developed by Amiri Baraka, Gertrude Jennette, Barbara Ann Teer, Voza Rivers, and Jamal Joseph.
In the featured performance, the ensemble brings to life excerpted works by some of the prolific writers and activists, who called 409 and Edgecombe Avenue home, including W.E.B. Du Bois, Louise Thompson-Patterson, and Marvel Cook.
Saturday, September 9th | 3pm
Daniel Carlton
Photographer: Claudia Hayden
SISTER'S UPTOWN BOOKSTORE WILL BE ON HAND TO SELL THE HARLEM READER AND BLACK DETROIT. THESE AND OTHER TITLES ARE ALSO AVAILABLE AT THEIR STORE ON 1942 AMSTERDAM AVENUE.
The Harlem Reader: A Celebration of New York’s Most Famous Neighborhood From the Renaissance to the 21st Century, edited by Herb Boyd, is Reading Across Harlem’s “primer.” Mr. Boyd will also sign his newest release Black Detroit: A People's History of Self-Determination.
Six events, from September 2017 to April 2018, accompany this community read, which will allow the people of Harlem and elsewhere to come together in dialogue.
The participants will gain an understanding of why Harlem became the “Black Cultural Capital of the World,” and how the events that happened here resonated locally, nationally, and internationally.
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