New York, Jun 14 (AP) It's one of the largest repositories of Black history in the country — and its most devoted supporters say not enough people know about it. The Schomburg Centre for Research in Black Culture hopes to change that Saturday, as it celebrates its centennial with a festival combining two of its marquee annual events.
The Black Comic Book Festival and the Schomburg Literary Festival will run across a full day and will feature readings, panel discussions, workshops, children's story times, and cosplay, as well as a vendor marketplace. Saturday's celebration takes over 135th Street in Manhattan between Malcom X and Adam Clayton Powell boulevards.
Founded in New York City during the height of the Harlem Renaissance, the Schomburg Centre will spend the next year exhibiting signature objects curated from its massive catalog of Black literature, art, recordings and films.
Artists, writers and community leaders have gone the centre to be inspired, root their work in a deep understanding of the vastness of the African diaspora, and spread word of the global accomplishments of Black people.
It's also the kind of place that, in an era of backlash against race-conscious education and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, exists as a free and accessible branch of the New York Public Library system. It's open to the public during regular business hours, but its acclaimed research division requires an appointment.
“The longevity the Schomburg has invested in preserving the traditions of the Black literary arts is worth celebrating, especially in how it sits in the canon of all the great writers that came beforehand,” said Mahogany Brown, an author and poet-in-residence at the Lincoln Centre, who will participate in Saturday's literary festival.
For the centennial, the Schomburg's leaders have curated more than 100 items for an exhibition that tells the centre's story through the objects, people, and the place — the historically Black neighbourhood of Harlem — that shaped it. Those objects include a visitor register log from 1925-1940 featuring the signatures of Black literary icons and thought leaders, such as Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes; materials from the Fab 5 Freddy collection, documenting the earliest days of hip hop; and actor and director Ossie Davis's copy of the “Purlie Victorious” stage play script.
An audio guide to the exhibition has been narrated by actor and literacy advocate LeVar Burton, the former host of the long-running TV show “Reading Rainbow.”
Whether they are new to the centre or devoted supporters, visitors to the centennial exhibition will get a broader understanding of the Schomburg's history, the communities it has served, and the people who made it possible, said Joy Bivins, the Director of the Schomburg Centre, who curated the centennial collection.
“Visitors will understand how the purposeful preservation of the cultural heritage of people of African descent has generated and fuelled creativity across time and disciplines,” Bivins said.
Novella Ford, associate director of public programs and exhibitions, said the Schomburg Center approaches its work through a Black lens, focusing on Black being and Black aliveness as it addresses current events, theories, or issues. (AP)
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