1. The Life and Times of Malcolm X Opera

    (Source: nypl.org)

  2. Harlem’s Buried Treasure

    The depot, where the Willis Avenue Bridge meets First Avenue, marks the end point of Dutch Gov. Peter Stuyvesant’s “road to New Harlem,” a 10-mile trail from lower Manhattan constructed in 1658 by enslaved African workers. Beneath the depot’s block-long concrete floor, according to historians and archaeologists, is where those slaves are still buried.

    In lower Manhattan, a colonial village called New Amsterdam was established in 1625. Multinational from its inception, merchants and traders, primarily from Holland but also from England, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and Scandinavia, built a center for trade and commerce, while the African slaves of the Dutch West India Company labored to expand the colony to the island’s northern regions.

    Throughout the Americas — from Albany to Argentina — the successful colony building strategy was the same: Deploy slaves to clear land for plantations, towns and roads, and entire families would migrate to the New World.

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  3. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library’s Photos - Kareem Abdul - Jabbar Presents: On the Shoulders of Giants On the Shoulders of Giants, the story of America’s greatest basketball team of the segregated sports era, was unveiled at the Schomburg Center this Wednesday, February 9th, 2011. In 1925, the American Basketball League refused to admit the all-black Harlem Renaissance Big Five (the Harlem Rens). For the next two decades the Rens re-invented American basketball. In one of many remarkable seasons, the Rens won 112 games and lost only seven, including a streak of 88 straight victories against the nation’s best black and white teams.NBA great Kareem Abdul Jabbar is executive producer of On the Shoulders of Giants. Produced and Directed by Deborah Morales and narrated by Jamie Fox, the brilliant film includes appearances by Spike Lee, Dr. Maya Angelou, Dr. Cornel West, Dr. Richard Lapchick, Samuel L. Jackson, Jerry West, Bill Russell, Charles Barkley, Carmelo Anthony, Dr. J, and other NBA legends. Music by will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas), Chuck D (Public Enemy), Herbie Hancock, and original score by Grammy-winning composer Bill Cunliffe.~ Christopher P. Moore

    Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library’s Photos - Kareem Abdul - Jabbar Presents: On the Shoulders of Giants

    On the Shoulders of Giants, the story of America’s greatest basketball team of the segregated sports era, was unveiled at the Schomburg Center this Wednesday, February 9th, 2011.

    In 1925, the American Basketball League refused to admit the all-black Harlem Renaissance Big Five (the Harlem Rens). For the next two decades the Rens re-invented American basketball. In one of many remarkable seasons, the Rens won 112 games and lost only seven, including a streak of 88 straight victories against the nation’s best black and white teams.

    NBA great Kareem Abdul Jabbar is executive producer of On the Shoulders of Giants. Produced and Directed by Deborah Morales and narrated by Jamie Fox, the brilliant film includes appearances by Spike Lee, Dr. Maya Angelou, Dr. Cornel West, Dr. Richard Lapchick, Samuel L. Jackson, Jerry West, Bill Russell, Charles Barkley, Carmelo Anthony, Dr. J, and other NBA legends. Music by will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas), Chuck D (Public Enemy), Herbie Hancock, and original score by Grammy-winning composer Bill Cunliffe.

    ~ Christopher P. Moore