New York City is filled with events throughout February to celebrate Black History Month, as well as historic locations and cultural sites to visit year-round (including in the subway system). Below, find a list of events happening around the city this month to help you celebrate and participate. For more, please see our events calendar, which is regularly updated.
Running for Civil Rights at the New-York Historical Society
The New York City Marathon is renowned as an inclusive event that galvanizes the city and world — and that's due to the work of the Ted Corbitt and Joseph Yancey. The New-York Historical Society's new exhibit, Running for Civil Rights, looks at their legacies did to help make long-distance running a sport more people could participate in. Corbitt was the first African American to run the marathon in the Olympics and helped standardize marathons across the country, while Yancey co-founded the New York Pioneers Track and Field Club, the first interracial track club.
Black History Month Tours at the Louis Armstrong House
Throughout February, the Louis Armstrong House Museum is offering tours of the Corona, Queens home and the legendary trumpeter's influence on the civil rights movement. Armstrong, who lived in the modest house from 1943 until his death in 1971, spoke out against segregation, even saying President Dwight Eisenhower should abide by the Constitution to allow black students to attend Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957 (Eisenhower would later send troops to integrate the school). The brick abode, which Armstrong shared with his wife Lucille, is also a jewel of mid-century decor.
Handel Made in America at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, WQXR host Terrance McKnight discusses his upbringing and relationship with classical musical while also examining the world of baroque composter George Frideric Handel. Handel's fame spread during 18th England when trading companies "[which] underwrote arts and culture turned their profits from sinister activities: the trade of exotic goods and, most notably, enslaved people." Joining McKnight are opera singers Latonia Moore, J'Nai Bridges, and bass-baritone Davóne Tines, and director Pat Eakin Young, conductor Malcolm J. Merriweather, and Handel scholar Ellen Harris. Performances on February 15th and 16th.
Tenement Museum: A Union of Hope
The Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side has opened an exhibit about the lives of Joseph and Rachel Moore, two Black New Yorkers who made their home in New York City tenements in the 1860s and 1870s. "Years in the making, the exhibit traces Joseph’s history from his free Black community of Belvidere, New Jersey, through his family’s migration to New York City, and the community he and his wife Rachel built in their neighborhoods and workplaces."
Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys
Swizz Beatz (Kasseem Dean) and Alicia Keys hold an expansive collection of artworks (thousands of pieces!), and they are sharing it with the public at the new Brooklyn Museum exhibit, The Dean Collection, Giants. The exhibit features over 100 works by legendary Black artists, from iconic photographs by Gordon Parks, to the vibrant work of Esther Mahlangu, and "the largest ever" work by Meleko Mokgosi. Read more about the exhibit, and the incredible collection in the NY Times. The exhibit runs through July 7th in the Museum’s Great Hall.
Rhythms & Movement of African American Culture Festival
The Rhythms & Movements of African American Cultural Festival, from the Brooklyn-based Asase Yaa Cultural Arts Foundation, will commemorate the 54th Anniversary of Black History Month with a 7-day celebration. Expect 16 performances fusing African music genres and dance forms from Ghana, Guinea, Senegal, and Cuba, as well as more contemporary forms such as Afro-Cuban, House, Rock, Hi-Life, Hip Hop, Jazz, and modern dance. The festival takes place from February 12th – 18th; get the full schedule and more details here.
The Ways of Langston Hughes: Griff Davis and Black Artists in the Making at NYPL
The photographs at the NYPL's new exhibit, The Ways of Langston Hughes: Griff Davis and Black Artists in the Making, at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, "offers an intimate look at Hughes with students, writers, visual artists, and performers in different periods of their maturation." The Harlem Renaissance poet forged friendships with many during his lifetime, and among them was photographer Griffith Davis. Davis "became the first Roving Editor of Ebony magazine at the recommendation of Hughes," and for a time lived at Hughes's 127th Street home. In this exhibit (open through July 8th), Davis’s photography "is complemented by archival material from the Schomburg Center’s collections and letters reflecting decades of personal correspondence."
Subway
Take the 2/3 to 135th St and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is across the street
Harlem Chamber Players’ Black History Month Celebration
The Harlem Chamber Players’ 16th Annual Black History Month Celebration will take place on February 15th. This concert, which is also hosted at The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, features Nathalie Joachim, Ashley Jackson, and Helga Davis. Get the full program here.
Subway
Take the 2/3 to 135th St and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is across the street
Studio Museum of Harlem: Family Day
The Harlem Library invites one and all to create art during the Studio Museum Family Day. Just swing by between 2 and 4 p.m. and tap into your inner artist. There will be some guidance, too — they note, “We will look at an artwork called Nwantini by Njideka Akunyili Crosby and use materials similar to her as we joyfully create. We will also explore how to express love through mixed media collage."
Subway
Hudson
Harlem
Take the 4/5/6 or Metro-North to 125th Street and the library is just a few minutes away
Genius: MLK/X—Two Minds, One Movement Exhibit at the Paley Center
Paley celebrates Black History Month with an exploration of the legacies of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. In addition to exhibit featuring artifacts, props and costumes from the series, they will spotlight “the latest installment of National Geographic’s Emmy-winning Genius anthology series, Genius: MLK/X.... and how their dueling philosophies helped usher America through the Civil Rights movement.”
Black History Month: Brooklyn and the Abolitionist Movement
Join the Parks Department's Urban Park Rangers on a walk through Brooklyn's significant history to the abolitionist movement in the United States. The one-day-only tour takes plae on February 18th and will begin in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Note: Registration is required.
Subway
Take the F to York St, the 2/3 to Clark St, or the A/C to High Street and the park is about a 10 minute walk
