Columbia University’s Community Scholars Program

Columbia University’s new Community Scholars Program is seeking nominations and applications for its inaugural class.  The Community Scholars Program is being originated as one of the benefits and amenities to be provided to the local community as part of Columbia’s Manhattanville Campus Expansion.  The inaugural cohort will be made up of 5 Scholars and the program will begin in Fall 2013, with an application deadline of April 18, 2013. 

***

The Community Scholars Program offers independent, community-based scholars from Northern Manhattan access to a suite of Columbia University services and resources in order to work toward the completion of a particular project or to attain skill in a particular area.  The program will allow these scholars a formal opportunity to participate in the intellectual life of the university, providing opportunities for interaction with faculty, students, and other visiting scholars.  It will help to foster and deepen ties between the University and the many independent members of the cultural and intellectual community surrounding it.

Scholars will be appointed for terms of up to three years, and will be selected by a committee that may include senior staff, deans and faculty and may also include leaders from local cultural institutions.

At the end of each Scholar’s appointment, the tangible outcome of his or her term at the University would be submitted to remain accessible for future Community Scholars and others to review.

Eligibility:  New York City residents of Manhattan living north of 96th Street and currently not affiliated with Columbia University; High School Diploma, GED or equivalent. Download the application here.

Historical Tribute: Carter G. Woodson

Carter G. Woodson (born 1875). Convinced that the history of African-Americans was being ignored and misrepresented, took steps to put things right. In 1915 Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). The association was created to promote and preserve African-American history and culture. He founded the Journal of Negro History in 1916.  He authored “The Miseducation of the Negro”. He died April 3,1950 #todayinblackhistory

Memorial Tribute: Chinua Achebe

The Schomburg Center extends its sincerest regards to the family of the world-renowned novelist and professor Chinua Achebe who passed away on March 21, 2013.  We are thankful for Achebe’s contributions and his legacy as the “grandfather of Nigerian literature”.

Ordinary People BGLA Film Series : Pariah

On April 2 at 6:30 p.m, join us at the Schomburg for our Ordinary People BGLA film series screening of Pariah by Dee Rees. The film is about a Brooklyn teenager exploring her identity, friendships, heartbreak, and family drama. Starring Kim Wayans and the up-and-coming star Adepero Oduye . FREE! http://ow.ly/jtaXf

Historical Tribute: Arturo Alfonso Schomburg

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture strives to continuously spread the seed of knowledge to our community.

In honor of Puerto Rico’s Emancipation Day (Día de la Abolición de Esclavitud—March 22, 1873), we are honoring an important historian, scholar, and activist who was a central figure in collecting and preserving the artifacts, and the experiences and culture of the black Diaspora during the Harlem Renaissance, and whose collections contributed to the foundation of our research center—Mr. Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (1874-1938).

Arturo Alfonso Schomburg was born on January 24, 1874 in the Spanish colony of Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico to a black West Indian mother and a German immigrant father.  In 1891, Schomburg migrated to New York where he became involved with the nationalist intellectuals of the Cuban and Puerto Rican communities, and later black internationalism.

Mr. Schomburg was a scholar, historian, author, and activist in the United States, and his vast collection of black history and culture was purchased in 1926 by the Schomburg Library in Harlem, New York.  The library was named after Mr. Schomburg in October 1972, in honor of his commitment to collecting and documenting Black contributions to the world.  Today the Schomburg Center possesses one of the richest collections on black history.

For an in-depth biography of Mr. Arthur Schomburg and his experiences and contributions visit here.

Fresh, Bold, and So Def Women in Hip-Hop

Join us at the Schomburg at 4 p.m. on Sat, March 23, as we highlight the contributions and achievements of women in hip-hop. FREE! If you can’t attend in person, stream this event live on NYPL’s YouTube channel.

For more info click here.

Loïs Mailou Jones: A Life in Vibrant Color →

Our latest exhibition, Loïs Mailou Jones: A Life in Vibrant Color, opens on April 19, 2013. For more information, please click here. 

Tomorrow our exhibition Visualizing Emancipation ends. Make plans to visit before 6 p.m. Saturday, March 16, 2013.

(Source: nypl.org)

studiomuseum:

Fore artist spotlight

Jennifer Packer
b. 1984, Philadelphia, PA
Lives and works in New York, NY

The often intimate scale of Jennifer Packer’s paintings contrast with the forthright attitude and confidence of her figures, who sit in varying degrees of repose—relaxed and self assured. They stare back, close their eyes or turn their backs to the viewer’s gaze. Often people of color, Packer’s sitters range from family members to classmates and friends. In their casual attire and ease, the subjects of Packer’s paintings complicate the artist’s more traditional approach to composition, which is influenced by Renaissance and Post-Impressionist painting. The loose brush strokes, neutral tones and muddled backgrounds frame her figures, whose clothes are rendered in radiant color and careful detail.

The furniture and settings featured in the paintings are also important since the chair, from Packer’s studio, is the thread that connects her portraits. An ottoman, empty lavatory and common space also surface as subjects, alluding to absent figures. With these scenes, Packer acknowledges still-lifes and portraiture as enduringly viable. How her figures are positioned in the paintings closes off possible points of identification or interaction with them, in turn preserving some mystery around the people and moments she’s chosen to immortalize.

—Jamillah James, 2012 Curatorial Fellow, The Studio Museum in Harlem

images: Mario, 2011, oil on canvas; Ottoman, 2011, oil on canvas; Joyce, 2012, oil on canvas. All courtesy the artist.

Celebrate Women’s History Month at the Schomburg Center’s annual Women’s Jazz Festival. Join us for an exploration of sacred music from spirituals to gospel with mezzo-soprano Alicia Hall Moran and vocalist Marcelle Davies Lashley.

Get your tickets NOW!

Curated by Toshi Reagon, Composer, Singer, Guitarist, and Producer (www.toshireagon.com).

Women's Jazz Festival 2013 Begins on March 4 →

Get your tickets now!

BGLA Ordinary People Film Series: A Marlon Riggs’ Retrospective

The Black Gay & Lesbian Archive’s Film and Book series - Ordinary People presents

A Marlon Riggs Retrospective - Screening and Panel Discussion

Affirmations, Anthem and Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien (No Regret)

On Tuesday, February 26, 2013 at 6:30 p.m. 

Marlon Riggs (1957-1994) was a gay African-American filmmaker, educator, essayist, and human rights activist. Riggs produced, wrote, and directed several television documentaries, including Ethnic Notions, Tongues Untied, Color Adjustment, and Black Is… Black Ain’t. Riggs’ aesthetically innovative and socially provocative films examine past and modern representations of race, gender and sexuality in the US. 

We asked our panelists to talk about what excites them about Marlon Riggs’s work. Here’s what they had to say: 

“He was a fiercely intelligent person who was also very down-to-earth and regular… a sweeter person you couldn’t find, except when it had to do with business.  He was quite matter-of-fact about what he wanted, what he would and wouldn’t do.  And that came through in the quality and universality of his work, the fact that it stands the test of time.”—Al Cunningham

“25 years after he created Tongues Untied, the film is still relevant. There are areas where we can see the conversation has grown and expanded in terms of black masculinity and sexual identity, but there are still people who haven’t seen the film but who watch it for the first time and have a similar reaction to the work as people did during the height of the culture wars of the late 80s and 90s.” —Rhea Combs

“I find Marlon’s work exciting because as Alice Walker said years ago, he was “undaunted by anticipated criticism,” which means he was fearless.  I also liked that he dug into sensitive areas around race, gender and sexuality for everyone, but that he particularly wanted to communicate with Black folks about these issues. He challenged us to examine issues with the hope that – in the end - we would be stronger.”—Cornelius Moore

The Exhibition Africans in India: From Slaves to Generals and Rulers Continues to Inspire →

The words ‘mind-blowing, awesome, wonderful, eye-opening, truly amazing, inspirational, life changing’ are being used by visitors—from as far away as Australia, Ethiopia, France, India, Italy and Spain—to describe the deeply inspring and moving exhibition Africans in India: From Slaves to Generals and Rulers. Come and see for yourself what they have discovered.