Harlem's History As A Call to Action
Discover the cultural roots and legacy of Harlem's past.
10:00-11:30 Auditorium
10:00-11:30 Auditorium
10:00-11:30 Auditorium
Black Studies departments and programs were not always “A Thing,” but after student demands, several universities added this discipline to its course offerings. The groundbreaking student take over of City College will be covered.
This panel is a historic first: Five seasoned scholars, who were at the forefront of this movement are presenting on this roundtable, alongside a younger scholar who was influenced by the work of her predecessors. This discussion offers intriguing insights into this
multifaceted history.
Moderator: Deborah Gray White— author, Too Heavy a Load: Black Women in Defense of Themselves, 1894-1994
Sam Anderson—author,
Black Holocaust for Beginners
Playthell Benjamin—two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee
for journalism
Herb Boyd—author,
The Harlem Reader
William Seraile—author,
Bruce Grit: The Black Nationalist Writings of John Edward Bruce
Vanessa Valdés—author, Diasporic Blackness: The Life and Times of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg
11:30-12:30 Auditorium
10:00-11:30 Auditorium
10:00-11:30 Auditorium
Mark Naison is a seasoned, anti-racist historian-activist whose early work looked at progressive politics In Harlem. Minkah Makalani, a younger scholar, also considers Harlem's political mystique. They will discuss the various movements and tendencies that arose, circa 1910-1960. Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) was a worldwide movement for Pan-Africanism. Sufi Hamid, who had almost been totally written out of history brought the “Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work Campaign” to Harlem from Chicago, and it was advanced by Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and others. The brilliant Hubert Harrison held that a socialist viewpoint would benefit the Black World. The influence of the Communist Party and its impact on Harlem activists include William Patterson, Louise Thompson Patterson, Shirley Graham Du Bois, W.E.B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, and Eslanda Goode Robeson
Moderator: LaShawn Harris—author, Tell Her Story: Eleanor Bumpurs & the Police Killing That Galvanized New York City
Minkah Makalani— co-editor, Escape from New York: The New Negro Renaissance beyond Harlem
Mark Naison—author, Communists In Harlem During the Depression
11:30-12:30 Room 316
10:00-11:30 Auditorium
11:30-12:30 Room 316
This panel focuses on Black theatre and film in Harlem. The individuals and the organizations that they founded shared a common goal of countering stereotypical, racist depictions of Black people. The Blacks Arts Repertory Theater, the HADLEY Players, the New Lafayette Theater, and the National Black Theater, as well as the playwrights and screenplay writers who trained at Frank Silvera’s Writing Workshop will be discussed.
Moderator: Byron C. Saunders—arts management consultant, actor, director, producer
Janice Jenkins—two-time AUDELCO Award winner for acting
Susan Watson Turner—filmmaker, scholar/professor, producer,
director, writer
12:30-2:00 Room 316
2:00-3:00 Auditorium
11:30-12:30 Room 316
In this dedicated, teacher-focused space, facilitators will lead a conversation about how educators across levels and contexts are already bringing Harlem history into their classroom and how the morning’s sessions have sparked new ideas for curriculum and classroom experiences. Registration Fee $20.
Facilitators: Ansley Erickson—co-editor, Educating Harlem A Century of Schooling and Resistance in a Black Community
José Vilson—executive director, EduColor
2:00-3:00 Auditorium
2:00-3:00 Auditorium
2:00-3:00 Auditorium
This session begins with a powerful, poignant video short, from 1989, when a group of activists and artists organized the Save the Audubon Campaign, in a show of early community-driven, heritage-preservation work to ensure that the site of Malcolm X’s assassination would remain intact and be a viable space in Harlem/Washington Heights. This action stopped Columbia from razing the entire building and resulted in the
Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Educational Center. This important act of “saving place” is a testament to what can happen when everyday people speak up and speak out.
Moderator: Rosemari Mealy—author, Fidel and Malcolm X: Memories of a Meeting
Valerie Jo Bradley—co-founder/president of Save Harlem Now!
Esperanza "Espe" Martell—Afro/Boricua/Puerto Rican human rights peace educator, organizer
Ruth Messinger—former Manhattan Borough president
Marina J. Ortiz—founder of East Harlem Preservation (EHP)
Karen D. Taylor—founding director, While We Are Still Here
3:00-4:00 Room 315
2:00-3:00 Auditorium
2:00-3:00 Auditorium
Please bring one item that you would like to preserve.
Many of us have cultural treasures in boxes in the back of the closet or under the bed. This interactive workshop will teach the fundamentals of saving community and family archival materials that not only tell personal histories, but these items also share the important social history of neighborhoods
such as Harlem.
You will learn how to use your cell phone or other device to record oral histories and to digitize those precious memories that tell the story of your life, your neighbors’ lives, and/or the story of a street. The skills you take away from this workshop may actually transform you into your block or building’s oral historian or neighborhood archivist.
Facilitator: Steven G. Fullwood— archivist, writer,
cultural documentarian
3:00-4:00 Room 316
4:15-5:15 Auditorium
4:15-5:15 Auditorium
This panel will discuss Black women sculptors of Harlem. Panelists will focus on how these women developed their craft, technique, and aesthetic in a traditionally male-dominant art form. They will also discuss how the artists portrayed their position as Harlemites and people of African descent, through their aesthetics. Additionally, they will examine how these particular artists have influenced others.
Moderator: Ademola Olugbefola—co-founder WEUSI, educator, activist, artist.
Vinnie Bagwell—American sculptor
Shirley C. Taylor—arts administrator
4:15-5:15 Auditorium
4:15-5:15 Auditorium
4:15-5:15 Auditorium
This discussion offers information about the historians, beginning with Schomburg and Bruce, who forged the difficult path of countering white supremacist “scholarship” regarding the “non-existence” of the illustrious aspects of Black History. The groundbreaking Negro Society for Historical Research will
be highlighted.
Moderator: Herb Boyd—author, The Harlem Reader
William Seraile—author,
Bruce Grit: The Black Nationalist Writings of John Edward Bruce
Vanessa Valdés—author, Diasporic Blackness: The Life and Times of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg
4:15-5:15 Room 316
4:15-5:15 Auditorium
4:15-5:15 Room 316
This discussion will focus on the consistent reality of Harlem’s solidarity with oppressed peoples across the world. Examples include the efforts Black men in Harlem, signing up to defend Ethiopia from Mussolini’s imperialist attack and occupation; the dedication of Nurse Salaria Kee, who left her job at Harlem Hospital to help the anti-fascist movement in Spain; the early recognition of the anti-apartheid struggle, by individuals that included Eslanda Goode Robeson; the status of the National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL) as the African National Congresses’ attorneys, who worked closely with Nelson Mandela; Robert Mugabe’s visit to Mount Olivet Baptist Church; and Fidel Castro’s visit to Abyssinian Baptist
Moderator: Basir Mchawi—chairman, International African
Arts Festival
Lennox S. Hinds— professor emeritus of law, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Roger Wareham— lawyer,
political activist
TEACH Ins & Community Events Committee
AKEMI KOCHIYAMA
ADEMOLA OLUGBEFOLA
ADEMOLA OLUGBEFOLA
Born and raised in Harlem; scholar-activist and community builder
ANSLEY ERICKSON
ADEMOLA OLUGBEFOLA
ANSLEY ERICKSON
Harlem resident; professor, Teachers College; author
BASIR MCHAWI
ADEMOLA OLUGBEFOLA
ANSLEY ERICKSON
Professor emeritus, Queens College; chairman, International African Arts Festival
CINQUE BRATH
DEIDRE BENNETT FLOWERS
DEIDRE BENNETT FLOWERS
Lifelong Harlem resident, seasoned political consultant, dedicated volunteer, and president of the board of the Elombe Brath Foundation
DEIDRE BENNETT FLOWERS
DEIDRE BENNETT FLOWERS
DEIDRE BENNETT FLOWERS
Lifelong Harlem resident, independent scholar
HERB BOYD
DEIDRE BENNETT FLOWERS
JOHANNA FERNANDEZ
Longtime Harlem resident, pioneering Black Studies professor emeritus, Wayne State, the City College of New York, and others; author
JOHANNA FERNANDEZ
DEIDRE BENNETT FLOWERS
JOHANNA FERNANDEZ
Professor, Baruch College; author of The Young Lords: A Radical History, a history of the Puerto Rican counterpart of the Black Panther Party.
KELLI MORGAN
KAREN D. TAYLOR
KAREN D. TAYLOR
Curator; founding executive director, Black Artists Archive
KAREN D. TAYLOR
KAREN D. TAYLOR
KAREN D. TAYLOR
Longtime Harlem resident; founding director, While We Are Still Here
SHIRLEY C. TAYLOR
SHIRLEY C. TAYLOR
SHIRLEY C. TAYLOR
Longtime Harlem resident; professor, Barnard College; director, Mind-Builders
S.E. Anderson
SHIRLEY C. TAYLOR
S.E. Anderson
Previous longtime Harlem resident; pioneering Black Studies professor emeritus, Sarah Lawrence, SUNY Old Westbury; author
PATRICIA ALLEN
SHIRLEY C. TAYLOR
S.E. Anderson
Lifelong Harlem resident, editor; translator
PLAYTHELL BENJAMIN
BRUCE DANIEL HAYNES, Ph.D.
PLAYTHELL BENJAMIN
Longtime Harlem resident; pioneering Black Studies professor emeritus, University of Massachusetts at Amherst; author
WILLIAM SERAILE
BRUCE DANIEL HAYNES, Ph.D.
PLAYTHELL BENJAMIN
Longtime Harlem resident; pioneering Black Studies professor emeritus, Lehman College; author
BRUCE DANIEL HAYNES, Ph.D.
BRUCE DANIEL HAYNES, Ph.D.
BRUCE DANIEL HAYNES, Ph.D.
Born and raised in Harlem; professor emeritus, University of California
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