• Hear the Words of Arturo Schomburg & Langston Hughes

    Explore the new digital guide for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, now featuring readings of Arturo Schomburg’s essay “The Negro Digs Up His Past” and Langston Hughes’s poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” Plus, discover holdings relating to Black artists in the Library for the Performing Arts guide and new items showcasing Black achievements from the Polonsky Exhibition on the NYPL guide. Download Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app, to access these features and many more.

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  • Explore the Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library's Treasures with Library Experts

    Hear Dalila Scruggs, Curator of the Photographs and Prints Division at the Schomburg Center, discussing Elizabeth Catlett's sculpture Political Prisoner, on view now in the Polonsky Exhibition.

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Exhibition | The Ways of Langston Hughes: Griff Davis and Black Artists in the Making

Through July 8 | Schomburg Center

Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes held friendships with artists across generations and disciplines, forging connections and building a network of Black creatives and intellectuals who responded to, and shaped, the current events of the time. During a visiting professorship at Atlanta University, Hughes met student and photojournalist Griffith J. Davis, who went on to become a longtime friend and Ebony magazine’s first roving editor. In this exhibition, Davis’ photography is complemented by archival material and letters from the Schomburg Center’s collections.

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Treasures: Free Downloadable Activities for Kids

Celebrate Black History Month with these bilingual family-friendly exhibition worksheets. Explore the Polonsky Exhibition to solve a special treasure hunt, crossword puzzle, and word search!

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Resources for All Ages

Discover book recommendations, articles, listicles, and research ideas from our expert librarians and staff.

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Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, one of The New York Public Library’s renowned research libraries, is a world-leading cultural institution devoted to the research, preservation, and exhibition of materials focused on African American, African Diaspora, and African experiences.

Interior of the Schomburg Center, featuring the Langston Hughes Lobby's terrazzo floor, which is marked by a brass cosmogram bearing song lines, texts, and literary signs

Researching Black History at NYPL

The Library offers myriad ways to engage with Black history, including hundreds of thousands of items in circulation, the archival collections of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, LibGuides, and more. Discover where to begin with iconic figures including Maya Angelou, Paul Robeson, Nat King Cole, and Zora Neale Hurston.

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Black History Month at the Center for Educators & Schools

Discover free programs, teaching tools, and resources for educators and librarians to celebrate Black History Month from NYPL's Center for Educators and Schools.

Events


Teaching Tools & Recommended Reading

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#SchomburgSyllabus

The #SchomburgSyllabus is an archive of new and recent educational resources relating to Black studies, movements, and experiences. By connecting these materials to the Schomburg Center’s collections, we honor and recognize the source and strength of Black self-education practices, collective study, and librarianship. The #SchomburgSyllabus is curated by Schomburg Center staff and organized into 27 themes to foster a greater understanding of the Black experience.

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Explore the Schomburg Center's Black Liberation Reading List

For nearly a century, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture has preserved, protected, and fostered a greater understanding of the Black experience through its collections, exhibitions, programs, and scholarship. In response to the uprisings across the globe demanding justice for Black lives in 2020, the Schomburg Center published its Black Liberation Reading List. The 95 titles on the list represent books we and the public turn to regularly as activists, students, archivists, and curators, with a particular focus on books by Black authors and those whose papers we steward. Explore the lists for kids, teens, and adults, and discover which titles are available in accessible formats.

Black History Month: More Suggested Reading

Explore these thematic reading lists that complement and expand on the Schomburg Center’s Black Liberation Reading List and discover the lives and legacies of influential Black figures, key moments in the history of Black America, and picture books for younger readers celebrating Black characters and families.

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