Schomburg Center Public Programs

ONLINE EVENT Our season of programs in our Conversations in Black Freedom Studies concludes with “A Century of Preserving Black Freedom: Libraries and Archives in the Tradition of Arturo Schomburg." Cheryl Knott will discuss Not Free, Not for All: Public Libraries in the Age of Jim Crow, a history that informs organizing for accessible, anti-racist, fully-funded libraries today. Laura Helton, author of Scattered and Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade History, wil…

IN PERSON The Division of Negro Literature, History and Prints—the forerunner to today’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture—opened on May 8, 1925 as a special collection of the 135th Street Branch Library. Join us on May 8, 2025 as we celebrate the centenary of the Schomburg Center. During this launch, visitors are invited to an open house of our archival divisions, important dialogues contextualizing the center’s development and evolution, and close with a public celebration marki…

We are proud to partner with The African Film Festival and Film at Lincoln Center for the 32nd African Film Festival. Centennial Legacies is this year's theme for featured shorts films. Titles include: The Legend of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, It Was Four Years Ago, Ousmane Sembène: The Making of Ceddo, The Draughtsmen Clash, and Malcolm X: Struggle for Freedom. A talkback follows with directors Leburt Bethune, Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda and cultural historian Daniella Brito. Films will be screened…

We are proud to partner with The African Film Festival and Film at Lincoln Center for the 32nd African Film Festival. Centennial Legacies is this year's theme for featured shorts films. Titles include: The Legend of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, It Was Four Years Ago, Ousmane Sembène: The Making of Ceddo, The Draughtsmen Clash, and Malcolm X: Struggle for Freedom. Films will be screened at the Francesca Beale Theater at Lincoln Center. Photo: Portrait of Arthur Alfonso Schomburg, bibliophile"…