Four Powerful Online Conversations from the Schomburg Center to Watch During Pride Month

Happy Pride Month! The official theme for 2023’s New York City Pride is “Strength in Solidarity,” which highlights the power and resiliency of the LGBTQ+ community and its allies.  

June is a terrific opportunity to learn more about some of the peaceful warriors who have used the power of poetry, prose, and innovative legal strategies to spark meaningful discussions, create safer spaces, and advance the civil rights of all. The Schomburg Center’s online public programs archives includes conversations about some of the LGBTQ+ champions who have been on the front lines fighting for equality and social justice.

Enjoy these conversations from the Center's Livestream archive—and explore the collection to watch more! 

In 2017, the Center acquired the personal archives of literary icon James Baldwin (1924–1987). Materials included audio recordings, handwritten-letters, manuscripts, photographs, short stories, unpublished works, and more. They provide an extraordinary look at one of the country’s finest writers and well-respected activists.  

This program, in partnership with Taschen Books, celebrated the Center’s collection and the letterpress edition of Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time. The book includes photographs by Steven Schapiro. His images of Baldwin offer a rare look at the writer and little-seen pictures of the civil rights movement such as Baldwin pictured with fellow activist Medgar Evers (1925-1963).

Then Schomburg Center Director Kevin Young moderated a discussion that included award-winning journalist Pamela Newkirk and 2014 MacArthur Fellow Terrance Hays. 

Note: the program begins at 13:24

In this 2016 discussion, Dr. Joseph was in conversation with poet, scholar, and activist Sonia Sanchez and visual artist and filmmaker Tiona McClodden. They reflected on their friend Audre Lorde and her enduring legacy. 

“What is it that we want this book to do?,” asked Dr. Gloria Joseph to writer and activist Audre Lorde (1934–1991) as Joseph conducted pre-interviews of what would become The Wind is the Spirit: The Life, Love and Legacy of Audre Lorde. A few months before her death, Lorde commissioned Joseph to write her memoir.

She read Lorde’s reply to the audience at the Schomburg Center. “To leave a story of who I am and all my complexities and to make the quality of my life so irresistible that other people will share my visions,” responded the activist, feminist, poet, writer. “I really want people to know how hard I tried with what I have."

“I’m talking about enabling people to be the best that they can be,” Lorde added. It’s like a poem. And, I believe passionately in the power of poetry. A poem does not tell you how to act and how to feel. It inspires something inside of you.”

Lorraine Hansberry is perhaps best known for making history as the first Black playwright to have her play, A Raisin in the Sun, produced on Broadway in 1959. 

Hansberry (1930–1965) used the power of her prose to advance conversations on LGBTQ+ rights, fair housing, equality, and more. 

Drs. Imani Perry and Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., discussed Perry’s book, Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry in this 2018 program. The biography explores Hansberry’s advocacy, friendships with activists such as Paul Robeson and Malcolm X, and Hansberry living under FBI surveillance. Scholar Alexsandra Mitchell moderates the conversation. 

The Schomburg is home to Hansberry’s personal papers, photos, diaries, manuscripts, and more.

Some of the most important legal victories of the 20th century came from the innovative strategies of Pauli Murray (1910–1985).

Murray's interpretation of the U.S. Constitution became one of the key arguments for overturning segregation, giving women rights in the workplace, and securing rights for LGBTQ+ individuals through Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

The activist was also an author, scholar, and poet. Murray led a life of "firsts:" first African American deputy attorney general in California in 1946, first Black person to receive the degree of Doctor of Juridical Science at Yale University in 1965, and the first Black person to be ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1977.

Murray is widely credited for coining the term "Jane Crow" to describe the racial discrimination of Black women.

This 2018 talk celebrated the re-publication of Murray's memoir, Song in a Weary Throat: Memoir of an American Pilgrimage. Listen to the conversation between scholars Patricia Bell-Scott, who wrote the book's new introduction, and Brittney Cooper as they discussed Murray’s life and legacy. 

Patricia Spears Jones and then Schomburg Center Director Kevin Young shared poetry readings from Murray’s work and their own during the program.

Looking for more online or in-person materials focused on LGBTQ+ Studies? View the research guide Exploring Black LGBTQ Studies in the Schomburg Center's Archive.

Recent Blogs Written by Lisa Herndon:

• Four Fascinating Facts About Toni Morrison’s Ties to the Schomburg Center
• Schomburg Center Holds Personal Photos, Writings & More of Harry Belafonte
• Books, Photos & Writings of Arturo Schomburg Featured in Upcoming Exhibition at The Met
• Afro Latinx Materials to Explore at the Schomburg Center

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