The Schomburg Center's Winter/Spring 2023 Public Programs

By Lisa Herndon, Manager, Schomburg Communications and Publications
December 13, 2022
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Against a light blue background, the words, Winter/Spring Programs on the lower right hand corner. The Schomburg Center logo in white is along the lower right side, too. The year 2023 is in large light blue type is in the background

Thank you for supporting the Winter/Spring 2023 season of Schomburg Center events. The Center's fifth annual Literary Festival on June 17 was the final program of the season.

If you’ve missed past programs such as our event about the book Racial Innocence by Tanya Katerí Hernández, panel discussions from our 11th annual Black Comic Book Festival, or our talk back with rap icon Chuck D, they and many more are available to view online. See below for links to watch online. Enjoy!

Two people are seated on stage at the Schomburg Center.

Rap music icon and activist Chuck D screened excerpts from his documentary series Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World at the Schomburg Center. Later in the evening, he took part in a talk back discussing the project.

Photo: Bob Gore

JANUARY

Tuesday, January 10 | 7 PM | Schomburg Center
Freedom on the Move: Songs in Flight—Preview Conversation
Presented by Sparks and Wiry Cries. In partnership with The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Watch on YouTube.

Thursday, January 19 | 6:30 PM
Between the Lines: Racial Innocence by Tanya Katerí Hernández
Watch on YouTube.

Monday, January 23 | 6:30 PM | Online
Talkback | Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World
Watch on YouTube.

Tuesday, January 24 | 6:30 PM | Schomburg Center
Arturo Schomburg Annual Lecture and Conversation
Watch on YouTube.

A group of musicians playing in a semi-circle. A conductor, back towards camera, is in the middle.

The Harlem Chamber Players are in performance during their annual Black History Month concert at the Schomburg Center.

Photo: Isseu Diouf Campbell

FEBRUARY

Thursday, February 16 | 7 PM | Schomburg Center 
The Harlem Chamber Players 15th Annual Black History Month Celebration
Featuring a world premiere by avant-garde jazz pianist-composer Aruán Ortiz

Tuesday, February 21– Tuesday, February 28
Pop-up Exhibition Black Shining Prince: Malcolm X as Cultural Icon

Wednesday, February 22 | 6:30 PM | Schomburg Center 
African Film Festival Screening | Elder’s Corner | Talk back with the film's director Adesiji Awoyinka
Watch on YouTube.

Thursday, February 23 | 5 PM | Schomburg Center
A Conversation with Jarvis Givens, Ph.D.
Produced in partnership with the Black Education Research Collective.

Saturday, February 25 | 12 PM | Schomburg Center
Literary Activism Summit
In partnership with PEN America, the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME)

NYPL's schedule of Black History Month events

A woman is holding a microphone and signing. In the other hand, she has a tambourine.

Lizz Wright was part of an all-star lineup of artists during the Schomburg Center's 31st annual Women's Jazz Festival in March.

Photo: William Farrington

MARCH

Wednesday, March 1 | 6:30 PM | Schomburg Center
Invisible to Whom? A Dialogue in Verse
Watch on YouTube.

Thursday, March 2 | 6:30 PM | Schomburg Center 
Ten Years of Conversations in Black Freedom Studies
Watch on YouTube.

Mondays in March | 7 PM | Schomburg Center
31st Annual Women's Jazz Festival
March 6 - Jazzmobile, Inc. presents Shirazette Tinnin 
March 13 - The Original Pinettes Brass Band direct from New Orleans
March 20 - Acclaimed vocalist and songwriter Lizz Wright

Thursday, March 23 | 5:30 PM | Schomburg Center
Sostre at 100: A Legacy of Action
In partnership with NYPL
Watch on YouTube.

Monday, March 27 | 6:30 PM | Schomburg Center
Between the Lines: Chrome Valley by Mahogany L. Browne
Watch on YouTube.

Three people are dressed in cosplay

The Center held its 11th annual Black Comic Book Festival on April 14 and 15.

Photo: William Farrington

APRIL

Wednesday, April 5 | 6:30 PM
Modern Spain and the Early Travels of Arturo Schomburg
In collaboration with Dr. Vanessa Valdés, co-curator of the exhibition Juan de Pareja, Afro-Hispanic Painter at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and associate provost for Community Engagement at The City College of New York.
Watch on YouTube.

Thursday, April 6 | 6:30 PM
Conversations in Black Freedom Studies: Writing Black Activist Lives
Watch on YouTube.

Wednesday, April 12 | 6:30 PM | Schomburg Center
Films at the Schomburg | Little Richard: I Am Everything 
Talk back with the film's director Lisa Cortés
Watch on YouTube.

Friday and Saturday, April 14 and April 15 | Schomburg Center
11th Annual Black Comic Book Festival
Watch on YouTube.

Wednesday, April 19 | 6:30 PM | Schomburg Center
Talks at the Schomburg: Black Curators Matter Oral History Project
Presented by the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University
Watch YouTube

Friday, April 21 | 7 PM | Schomburg Center
Carnegie Hall Citywide: Rahsaan Patterson

Wednesday, April 26 | 6:30 PM | Schomburg Center
Black Is a Church: A Book Event and Conversation
Watch on YouTube.

Thursday, April 27 | 7 PM | Lincoln Center
Legacies of San Juan Hill: New York City's Black Bohemia (1900-1920)
Co-presented with Lincoln Center.

A group of people looking at a wall in the exhibition Marking Time. It has information about the exhibit listed. The wall is white. The letting is in black.

The exhibition Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration is open now through December 4, 2023.

Photo: William Farrington

MAY

Monday, May 1 | 5 PM | Schomburg Center
Spring Exhibition Opening | Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration
Watch our Curator and Artist Talk on YouTube

Wednesday, May 3 | Freedom to Learn National Day of Action
Organizations and educators from across the country are speaking out to defend democracy, inclusion, and social justice. Our day of programming:
12 Noon | Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division, Schomburg Center
Sreening: Free Angela and All Political Prisoners

4 PM | American Negro Theatre, Schomburg Center
Witness to History: Selma 1965 Photography of Stephen Somerstein

Thursday, May 4 | 6:30 PM | Online 
Conversations in Black Freedom Studies: The Politics of Religion and the Role of Black Faith
Watch on YouTube.

Saturday, May 13 | 11 AM | Schomburg Center 
Heavy on That: Black Hope in Time(s) of Resistance
Watch on YouTube

Thursday, May 18 | 6:30 PM | Schomburg Center
Lapidus Center Presents | Advancing Scholarship: Slavery Archives & Affect
Watch on YouTube.

A person is seated, holding up a book, and reading out loud to children. The children are seen from behind. There is a second person sitting next to the reader.

The Woke Baby! Festival, which took part during the 2023 Schomburg Center Literary Festival, returned for a second year. Events consisted of read alouds, bookmark making, and more.

Photo: Bill Farrington

JUNE

Open Now Through Fall 2023
Beloved: African-American Portraits from the Dawn of Photography | Outdoor Banner Exhibition at St. Nicholas Park. In Partnership with Photoville.
Learn More

Monday, June 12 | 6:30 PM | Schomburg Center
Pre-Lit Fest 2023: Black Writers at Work
Watch on YouTube.

Wednesday, June 14 | 6:30 PM | Schomburg Center and Online
Pre-Lit Fest 2023: Henry Threadgill in Conversation with Yusef Komunyakaa
Watch on YouTube.

Saturday, June 17 | 11:30 AM – 6 PM | Schomburg Center 
5th Annual Schomburg Center Literary Festival 
Watch the festival opening on YouTube

SATURDAY - OPENING PROGRAMS
11:00 AM | Literacy is Generational Wealth
Award-winning author and cultural critic, Sarah Ladipo Manyika discusses her latest book Between Starshine and Clay: Conversations from the African Diaspora.
Watch on YouTube.

11:30 AM | Woke Baby! Festival
Watch on YouTube.

LANGSTON HUGHES AUDITORIUM | INDOOR
12:45 PM
Magogodi oaMphela Makhene (Innards)
Tyriek Rashawn White (We Are a Haunting: A Novel)
Watch on YouTube

2 PM
Claude Johnson (The Black Fives: The Epic Story of Basketball's Forgotten Era)
Moderator: DaLeyna Adkinson, Director, Marketing - Brand Heat & Culture, PUMA
Watch on YouTube

3:15 PM
Ibi Zoboi Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler, Nigeria Jones: A Novel
Watch on YouTube

4:30 PM | CLOSING PROGRAM
Stacy Spikes (Black Founder: The Hidden Power of Being an Outsider)
Moderator: Joy L. Bivins, Director, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Watch on YouTube.

AARON DOUGLAS READING ROOM | INDOOR
1:45 - 2:30 PM | WRITING WITH CARE, READING WITH A OPEN HEART
Nicole R. Fleetwood, PhD (Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration)
Rachel Cargle (A Renaissance of Our Own: A Memoir and Manifesto on Reimagining)
Watch on YouTube.

​3:45 PM - 4:30 PM | WRITING AND THE RECLAMATION OF POWER
Dionne Ford (Go Back and Get It: A Memoir of Race, Inheritance, and Intergenerational Healing)
Watch on YouTube.

JAMES BALDWIN STAGE | OUTDOOR
1:00 PM
Danté Stewart (Shoutin' in the Fire: An American Epistle)
Moderator: Robert Jones, Jr.

2:15 PM
Jafari Allen (There's a Disco Ball Between Us)
Robert Jones, Jr. (The Prophets)
Moderator: Samiya Bashir, Executive Director, Lambda Literary

3:30 PM
Nana Brew Hammond, Vanessa Walters, Nancy Naomi Carlson
RELATIONS: An Anthology of African and Diaspora Voices

ZORA NEALE HURSTON STAGE | OUTDOOR
Hosted by Shanelle Gabriel, Executive Director, Urban Word
POETRY FOR OUR TIME
12:45 PM
Candace Williams (I Am the Most Dangerous Thing)
Watch on You Tube.

1:30 PM
Cynthia Manick (No Sweet Without Brine)
Watch on YouTube.

2:15 PM
Latasha N. Nevada Diggs (Village) in Conversation with Claudia Rankine
Watch on YouTube

The 2023 Schomburg Center Literary Festival is powered by Puma. Major support is provided by Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation.