Latest news with #SchomburgCenter
CBS News
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Harlem's Schomburg Center prepares to open its exhibition celebrating 100 years
Harlem's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is celebrating 100 years of service to the community by displaying some of its more than 11 million pieces of African American history. In just a few days, exhibition 100 - A Century of Collections, Community and Creativity will open to the public on Malcolm X Boulevard. One hundred years of collecting some of the world's most exquisite artifacts at the Schomburg Center have all led up to it. CBS News New York "This is who we are. This is who we have been for 100 years, and this exhibition really celebrates that," Schomburg Center Director Joy Bivins said. "So, there's a great deal of art, fine art, that's on display, not only in this gallery but in galleries throughout the building." "They are icons of our collections" For the first time ever, viewers can be up close and personal with murals by artist Aaron Douglas created specifically for the Schomburg Center. CBS News New York "They are icons of our collections, but they're also really important to the study of Black art history," Bivins said. There are rooms filled with a fraction of the 11 million pieces of history housed at the library. Workers are still setting things up ahead of the opening. The cosmogram at the Schomburg Center. CBS News New York The Schomburg Center is also introducing a commemorative 100 year library card featuring the cosmogram, a piece of art installed in the floor. Beneath the cosmogram is the grave of poet Langston Hughes. "Within that cosmogram is the poem 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers.' And so this is really a way to take a piece of Schomburg with you," Bivins said. Exhibit opens Thursday The exhibit opens to the public May 8. "We emerge from a moment when it's not thought that there is Black history, and all of these things stand in as evidence that that is a falsehood," Bivins said. The research institute was started by Arturo Schomburg and Catherine Latimer. Latimer was the first Black woman hired by the New York Public Library. The Schomburg Center is hosting a full schedule of events all year long in honor of its centennial. To learn more, click here.
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NYC's Schomburg Center celebrating 100 years of Black culture art, history
What began as a small Harlem library addressing the needs of a changing neighborhood has grown into a world-renowned mecca for Black art and thought. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture has its roots in the Harlem Renaissance, one of the richest cultural movements in the nation's history. And as it launches into a yearlong celebration of its 100th anniversary, curators and historians are pushing programs focusing on the center's rich legacy and bright future. 'It is hard to overstate the significance of the Schomburg Center,' said Schomburg Center Director Joy Bivins. 'It has provided the evidence scholars and students have needed to understand Black history as global history.' No time is better than Black History Month to underscore that cultural significance, especially when programs promoting diversity, equity and inclusion are under attack from the Trump Administration, supporters of the center said. But the Schomburg has weathered storms before. The center came of age during the 1920s and 1930s amid the Jim Crow segregation laws of the American South and the Great Migration of African Americans to cities in the North. The center hit its stride in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement, dramatically increasing membership of patrons curious about their history and place in the American landscape. The center survived budget cuts of the 1970s, and threats of budget cuts every decade since, rallying year after year for additional funds and space. Schomburg supporters said they are not about to let some executive order targeting diversity programs spoil their celebration, or mission. 'We stay true to our commitments and values,' Bivins said. 'And the cornerstone of our work is making it clear that libraries are for everyone. That is not going to change. Here, we fulfill one of the most crucial linchpins of democracy — access to knowledge.' Indeed, a visit to the center is filled with many lessons and artifacts, from the papers of giants Maya Angelou and James Baldwin to the unpublished last chapter of Malcolm X's consequential autobiography. Among the items on display at the Schomburg Center, at W. 135th St and Malcolm X Blvd., is a copy of actor Ossie Davis' 1965 eulogy of Malcolm X, 'Black Shining Prince,' rare oral histories of former slaves and a digital archive with links to past exhibits. 'The center and its amazing staff stand as a spectacular gem in The New York Public Library system, and we are excited to celebrate this world-class institution together,' said New York Public Library President Anthony W. Marx. 'The Schomburg Center is beloved by scholars, and is a source of inspiration and materials for everyone seeking knowledge about Black history and culture, as well as a living, breathing center of community life in New York City,' Marx said. What we know as the Schomburg Center began at the New York Public Library's 135th St. branch. As Harlem grew, a growing population of Black residents sought books and cultural material that reflected their unique history. Historians point to a trailblazing team of branch librarians including Ernestine Rose and Catherine Latimer — the New York Public Library's first Black librarian — sought to address the needs of a changing neighborhood. Latimer and Rose launched a campaign to collect items that documented the Black experience, an undertaking that involved meetings with local activists including James Weldon Johnson, a writer and composer best known for the song 'Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing,' widely referred to as the Negro national anthem. Among the influencers in those meetings was Arturo Schomburg, a Puerto Rican historian of African descent who, as a young child, often wondered about the lack of African history taught in his classrooms, an interest that formed the cornerstone of his lifework of research and preservation. A sought-after curator, Schomburg joined the library and in 1925 established what would later be called the Division of Negro Literature and History. A year later, Schomburg's collection was purchased by the Carnegie Corporation for the New York Public Library, an assemblage that would become the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. 'Schomburg remains a beacon to those who seek to create spaces that reclaim histories that have often been neglected, marginalized, or ignored,' Bivins. said. 'It has also seeded generations of critical scholarship and creativity that help us better understand Black experiences through its commitment to the stewardship of the objects, from text to film, that illustrate how people of African descent have shaped our collective past and continue to impact the present
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Harlem's Schomburg Center celebrates 100th anniversary
NEW YORK -- As we celebrate Black History Month, one institute in Harlem is dedicated to the achievements of African-Americans every day of the year. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is marking its 100th year with a new generation of librarians to preserve more than 11 million items in the archive. "It takes money, it takes people, it takes historical understanding," said Anika Paris, an archivist who keeps watch over albums and video clips in the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division. "Everybody thinks that everything is just like available via Google," Paris continued. "There's a lot of stuff that we're encountering that does not have much of a record beyond these walls." History of the Schomburg Center Namesake Arturo Schomburg and Catherine Latimer, the first Black woman hired by the New York Public Library, started the research institute together 100 years ago with their team during the Harlem Renaissance, turning the 135th Street branch into the global resource it is today, with staff painstakingly digitizing documents for anyone to access. "I personally wound up in African American studies, partly influenced by the fact that Catherine Latimer and Benton Latimer gave us Black history books for Christmas," said Latimer's nephew Dr. Harold Weaver, Jr. Weaver credits his aunt's relationship with WEB DuBois for a monumental recommendation letter he received from the iconic figure. The historian also launched Rutgers University's Africana Studies department and created the Black Quaker Project to preserve the stories passed on to him. "Black history is being made here every single day" "Getting her start at the Schomburg makes way for Black and brown women who get their start at the Schomburg and then go on to do amazing things in the field of library work," added Kassidi Jones, the Schomburg Center's assistant curator for manuscripts, archives and rare books. Jones joined her division four months ago, carrying forward the work of predecessors like Latimer. "Black history is being made here every single day," Jones said, "and the fact that I get to contribute just by doing something I already love, which is tending to Black books and Black history and Black culture, that's really special." Jones and her colleagues will continue caring for this collection for the community for the next century and beyond. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture will be hosting a full schedule of events throughout the year to continue its centennial celebration. To learn more, click here. Have a story idea or tip in Harlem? Email Jessi by CLICKING HERE. Concern DOGE could stop Social Security, Medicare payments Hubble Telescope captures cosmic collision from 50 million years ago Latest news on federal worker buyout proposal, Trump's shocking Gaza plans
CBS News
05-02-2025
- General
- CBS News
Harlem's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture celebrates centennial anniversary
NEW YORK -- As we celebrate Black History Month, one institute in Harlem is dedicated to the achievements of African-Americans every day of the year. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is marking its 100th year with a new generation of librarians to preserve more than 11 million items in the archive. "It takes money, it takes people, it takes historical understanding," said Anika Paris, an archivist who keeps watch over albums and video clips in the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division. "Everybody thinks that everything is just like available via Google," Paris continued. "There's a lot of stuff that we're encountering that does not have much of a record beyond these walls." History of the Schomburg Center Namesake Arturo Schomburg and Catherine Latimer, the first Black woman hired by the New York Public Library, started the research institute together 100 years ago with their team during the Harlem Renaissance, turning the 135th Street branch into the global resource it is today, with staff painstakingly digitizing documents for anyone to access. "I personally wound up in African American studies, partly influenced by the fact that Catherine Latimer and Benton Latimer gave us Black history books for Christmas," said Latimer's nephew Dr. Harold Weaver, Jr. Weaver credits his aunt's relationship with WEB DuBois for a monumental recommendation letter he received from the iconic figure. The historian also launched Rutgers University's Africana Studies department and created the Black Quaker Project to preserve the stories passed on to him. "Black history is being made here every single day" "Getting her start at the Schomburg makes way for Black and brown women who get their start at the Schomburg and then go on to do amazing things in the field of library work," added Kassidi Jones, the Schomburg Center's assistant curator for manuscripts, archives and rare books. Jones joined her division four months ago, carrying forward the work of predecessors like Latimer. "Black history is being made here every single day," Jones said, "and the fact that I get to contribute just by doing something I already love, which is tending to Black books and Black history and Black culture, that's really special." Jones and her colleagues will continue caring for this collection for the community for the next century and beyond. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture will be hosting a full schedule of events throughout the year to continue its centennial celebration. To learn more, click here.
