Harlem PMCA (Beta)

Items

• Interview with Sherman Edmiston, Jr., owner of Essie Green Gallery
• Lana Turner, Style Maker
• Discovering HarlemStage: "The Gatehouse"
  An exploration of the backstory of HarlemStage and its distinctive showplace, "The Gatehouse," as told by HarlemStage's execs Pat Cruz and James King.
• Riverton 70th Anniversary: "It was a Moment"
  70 years ago, Riverton, a "separate but equal" community, was created by Metropolitan Life Corporation in Harlem for "Negroes," who were then excluded from consideration for housing at its other three locations in lower Manhattan and the Bronx. The resulting community became noteworthy for its strong educational and cultural values and an ongoing sense of unity that transcends the physical place. The "children" of this storied and controversial community have sustained a tradition of convening for periodic reunions since 1973. Roger Parris, a renowned poet who was an original tenant, delivered a stirring poem entitled "It was a Moment", to cap off the evening's events at this 7-23-2017 event.
• Congressman Espaillat
  A brief chat with Congressman Adriano Espaillat, U.S. Representative of New York’s Thirteenth Congressional District, which includes Harlem, East Harlem, West Harlem, Hamilton Heights, Washington Heights, Inwood, Marble Hill, and the north-west Bronx.
• Bettie Esther Parham: A Renaissance Woman
  Profile of Harlem entrepreneur, Bettie Esther Parham: educator, writer, chemist, real estate exec, manufacturer, Importer, philanthropist, and socialite.
• NAC
  Final Assignment for Generative Histories Harlem Pt. 2
• Lanterns
  Final Assignment for Generative Histories Harlem Pt. 2
• Yoruba Cultural Center Activation
  Final Assignment for Generative Histories Harlem Pt. 2
• Shrine to Shrine
  Final Assignment for Generative Histories Harlem Pt. 2
• The Beating Heart of Harlem
  Final Assignment for Generative Histories Harlem Pt. 2
• Curiosity Cubes
  Final Assignment for ARCH 2400 (Spring 2025)
• Honoree: Lana Turner
  Lana Turner, Cultural Historian, Recipient of the A. Philip Randolph-Bayard Rustin Lifetime Achievement Award. Lana Turner is quintessential Harlem, a landmark unto herself. A reader, writer, thinker and researcher with a keen interest in the elements of art and style in Black culture and why this meditation matters, she has earned the endearing title of “Queen of Harlem.” She works as a real estate professional, producer, archivist, and preservationist. Always breaking new ground to celebrate Harlem’s history and its institutions, she co-founded The Literary Society, a Harlem-based book discussion group; launched Men Who Cook, initially to support the Children’s Art Carnival in Harlem; and continues to collaborate with others to mount initiatives that preserve the history of Black culture. Also, she is recognized for her impressive collection of vintage clothing which has been featured in fashion, gallery and museum exhibitions.
• Honorees: Martin Spollen and Chen "Jenny" Jie
  Martin Spollen and Chen "Jenny" Jie: Recipients of the Tandy & Foster Architectural Heritage Award. The James A. Bailey mansion at St. Nicholas Place and West 150th Street was built in 1888 for the partner of P.T. Barnum in the Greatest Show on Earth. Although designated a New York City Landmark in 1974, by the early 2000’s the mansion was leak-plagued and in massive disrepair. Fortunately, the mansion has been saved by an enterprising couple, Martin Spollen and Chen “Jenny” Jie, who purchased it in 2009 and have been restoring it ever since. The couple has been doing much of the careful restoration with their own hands and, even with cash raised from renting out the mansion as a location for television shows like Law and Order and Boardwalk Empire, they expect that it will take them another 5 to 10 years to complete the restoration.
• Honoree: The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Joy Bivins, Executive Director
  Founded in 1925 and named a National Historic Landmark in 2017, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is one of the world’s leading cultural institutions devoted to the research, preservation, and exhibition of materials focused on African American, African Diaspora, and African experiences. As a research center of the New York Public Library, the Schomburg Center features diverse programming and collections spanning over 11 million items that illuminate the richness of global Black history, arts and culture.
• Second Annual Gene Norman Preservation Awards Gala
  Alfred Warren Gene Norman, Feb1935-Sep 2020, was the first, and to date only, African American Chairman of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). Serving under Mayor Edward I. Koch in the 1980s, Norman helped defeat New York State legislation that would have exempted religious institutions from landmarks designation, and oversaw the preservation of St. Bartholomew's Church. During his tenure as chairman, LPC granted landmark designation to the Coty and Rizzoli Buildings on Fifth Avenue; the Ladies Mile shopping area from 15th to 24th Streets, between Park Avenue South and Avenue of the Americas; and the Coney Island Cyclone. Norman was widely praised for his superior skill in navigating New York City's landmarking bureaucracy.
• Broken Blocks: The Influence of the Abyssinian Church
• Harlem YMCA
  Final Assignment for Generative Histories Harlem Pt. 2
• Memory and Nostalgia
  Final Assignment for Generative Histories Harlem Pt. 2
• The Schomburg Center
  Final Assignment for Generative Histories Harlem Pt. 2
• Built By Harlem
  Final Assignment for Generative Histories Harlem Pt. 2
• Oral History Interview with Kazembe Balagun by Samantha Fox
  Samantha Fox, M. Arch student at Spitzer School of Architecture, interviews Kazembe Balagun, Executive Director of Maysles Documentary Center, on November 8, 2024. The image paired with this interview is a 2022 illustration (color pencil on paper) titled "Kazembe Balagun, Black Militant Study" by Shellyne Rodriguez. Shellyne Rodriguez is a Bronx-based artist, educator, historian, writer, and community organizer who works in a variety of media, including drawing, painting, collage, and sculpture. Rodriguez stewards the histories and stories of people that have shaped her lived experience, describing her practice as “the depiction and archiving of spaces and subjects engaged in strategies of survival against erasure and subjugation.” Through her multidisciplinary practice, Rodriguez documents the ways in which the diverse social fabric of the South Bronx is rewoven as the people and cultures coexist. Rodriguez utilizes language as well as cultural and sociopolitical references to create unified portraits of individuals from various communities formed in what she describes as the “periphery of empire.” Engaging with the legacy of the Ashcan School, who bore witness to the rise of the modern metropolis and depicted how the poor and working class in New York enclaves were transformed by this, Rodriguez views figures such as Alice Neel, Jane Dickson, and Martin Wong as an extension of this tradition and situates her practice alongside them.
• Preserving the Power: Malcolm X in the Archive
  Final Assignment for Generative Histories Harlem Pt. 2
• Harlem Hospital Murals
  Final Assignment for Generative Histories Harlem Pt. 2
• Harlem Hospital Center
  Final Assignment for Generative Histories Harlem Pt. 2