February is Black History Month, and across the five boroughs, museums, cultural venues and civic organizations will be honoring and celebrating Black culture with special art projects, history lectures, and much more. We’ve collected some of the best Black History Month events happening around New York, all of which you can reach via public transit.
Pick up a paintbrush and brush up on Black history at Snug Harbor with Painting With Soul: Colors of Culture. Participants will take part in a self-guided paint project, then a Black history quiz game. Take home some art and maybe a prize, too! This event is free and will take place on Saturday, February 1st, from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm.
Staten Island Railway
SIR
Snug Harbor is a 20-minute bus ride from the Staten Island Ferry terminal
Get to know more about Thomas Downing, the New York Oyster King, and the history of Black oyster farming at this hands-on event for all ages at the King Manor Museum in Rufus King Park on Saturday, February 1st, starting at 1:00 pm. Downing, the child of former slaves, rose to become the owner of the most popular and esteemed restaurants in 19th-century New York, and one of the wealthiest people in the city, as well as an abolitionist whose restaurant on Broad Street was a stop on the Underground Railroad. At the King Manor Museum, you’ll learn about his life, oysters, and much more.
Subway
Rufus King Park is a short walk from the Jamaica Center - Parsons/Archer E/J/Z station
New York Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, the first Black Speaker of the House, will talk about his life, career and his new children’s book, The ABCs of Democracy, in this talk and signing at Medgar Evers College on Friday, February 8th, starting at 6:30 pm. Now the House Minority Leader, Jeffries will be in conversation with Lurie Daniel Favors, executive director of the Center for Law and Social Justice, with special guest host L. Joy Williams, the president of the Brooklyn branch of the NAACP.
Subway
Medgar Evers College is a short walk from the Franklin Av-Medgar Evers College 2/3/4/5 station
Some of the biggest and most important names in Black history are buried within the walls of Green-Wood Cemetery, from artists to physicians to civil rights activists. Learn more about them and their lives on "Brooklyn’s Black Trailblazers,” a guided trolley tour that will take you to the gravesites of Jean-Michel Basquiat, James Weldon Johnson, Charles L. Reason, and more historic Black figures. The tour will take place on Saturday, February 8th, starting at 10:00 am.
Brooklyn had a big role to play in the abolitionist movement of the 19th century, and you can learn all about the important people and places within it on this guided walking tour led by the Urban Park Rangers on Sunday, February 9th. Meet at the corner of Furman and Old Fulton Streets at Brooklyn Bridge Park at 1:00 pm for this 90-minute expedition.
One of the most famous figures of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes spent his formative years in New York City, where he contributed greatly to the rise of the city’s Black arts and culture scene. Head to Crotona Park in the Bronx on Sunday, February 9th at 1:00 pm to hear some of his jazz poetry and get the chance to make some “love potion” brews.
Did you know that, prior to the creation of Central Park, there was a small settlement in the first half of the 19th century along what is now the park’s western border between 82nd and 89th Streets called Seneca Village that was the largest community of free Black landowners in the city? Learn more about the lives of the people who once lived there and what life was like in Seneca Village during this free history presentation by the Urban Park Rangers on Sunday, February 9th, beginning at 1:00 pm at West 81st Street and Central Park West.
Subway
Take the B or C train to 81st St-Museum of Natural History for easy access to this event
Join six-time Grammy nominee and multi-instrumentalist Chief Adjuah for a celebration of Black art, expression and music at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Tuesday, February 11th, at 2:00 pm. Adjuah, who is also a composer, producer and designer of apps and instruments, will share stories connected to the Met’s collection paired with musical demonstrations. This event is free with museum admission.
On Thursday, February 13th, historian Eric K. Washington will present an illustrated lecture on a long-forgotten piece of Black New York City history: Colored School No. 4, a former public schoolhouse in Chelsea that was exclusively for Black children. Washington will discuss the history of the school, which was in operation and segregated from 1850 until 1894 and is now a historic landmark, as well as highlight the lives of some of the students and teachers who went and worked there. This talk will begin at 6:00 pm at the Van Cortlandt House Museum in Van Cortlandt Park.
Subway
The Van Cortlandt House Museum is a short walk from the Van Cortlandt Park-242 St 1 train station
New York in the 19th century was home to several prominent Black Americans who played a huge role in the political and legal fights over slavery and abolition in the first half of the 1800s and leading up to the Civil War. “The Rising Generation: The 19th-Century Black New Yorkers Who Changed a Nation,” presented by The New York Historical Society, will dive into that topic through a conversation between historian Sarah L.H. Gronningsater and Columbia University history professor Christopher Brown. The talk will begin at 6:30 pm on Thursday, February 13th.
Subway
The New York Historical Society is a short walk from the 81st St-Museum of Natural History B/C station
Join Prospect Park Alliance and the 67th Precinct Clergy Council for an afternoon of painting, history, food and community at Peace Over Prejudice at Lefferts Historic House Museum in Prospect Park. Guests will contribute to a collective artwork centered on the theme of love and togetherness that will be unveiled at the event’s end. This event is free to attend and will begin at 2:00 pm on Sunday, February 16th.
Explore the connection between the works of renowned fantasy and science-fiction author Octavia Butler and the natural world with this guided hike and fire-side chat led by the Urban Park Rangers at the Van Cortlandt Nature Center in Van Cortlandt Park on Sunday, February 16th. You’ll get to hear Butler’s stories as you walk, then come together by the fire to share your experience. This event is free to attend and begins at 4:30 pm.
Subway
The Van Cortlandt Nature Center is a short walk from the Van Cortlandt Park-242 St 1 train station
Learn about the intersection of Black history and Foley Square at this two-part event hosted by cultureNOW, the United States Southern District Court of New York, and the National Park Service, which begins with a tour of the African Burial Ground with its architect, Rodney Leon, and concludes with a symposium at the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse on three notable Black jurists who collaborated with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. This event is free to attend and begins at 3:00 pm on Tuesday, February 18th.
Subway
Foley Square is a short walk from the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall 4/5 station and the Chambers St J/Z station
Head to the Jackie Robinson Museum on Friday, February 21st from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm for a program on the history of Black baseball, from the 19th century to the Negro Leagues to Robinson’s breaking of MLB’s color line to today’s game. This family-friendly event will include hands-on activities, interactive games, scavenger hunts and more and is free with museum admission.
The Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning is putting on a two-night Black History Month show of West African Dance on Friday, February 21st and Saturday, February 22nd, beginning each night at 8:00 pm. Featured performers include the Kofago Dance Ensemble and the FANIKE! African Dance Troupe in what promises to be a fun and frenetic celebration of West African culture.
Subway
The Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning is a short walk from the Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer E/J/Z station
Be sure to check out our regularly updated events calendar, too, for more happenings in the city, the Hudson Valley, Long Island and Westchester.
