February is Black History Month, the annual celebration of the heritage and culture of African Americans, and a time to recognize the many contributions and sacrifices that helped shape our city and the nation. At Village Preservation, we are committed to recognizing and furthering that legacy as we strive to protect historic structures in Greenwich […]
Greenwich Village has long been a hub of creativity, activism, and cultural exchange, and its Black history is deeply woven into the neighborhood’s identity. From the early days of New York City’s African American communities to the Civil Rights Movement and beyond, Black residents have shaped the social, artistic, and political fabric of the Village. […]
Alvin Ailey is one of the most influential figures in the history of Modern Dance. A virtuosic dancer, innovative choreographer, and cultural leader, he used his artistic voice to celebrate, contemplate, and comment on the African American experience. Ailey spent a large part of his career cultivating his New York-based company, the Alvin Ailey American […]
Handwriting may be a bit of a lost art these days. But handwritten records remain hugely important when conducting historical research. The vast majority of extant original houses in New York City were built in the 1800s, and all of the initial information about these buildings was documented by hand. Even after the typewriter became […]
Village Preservation has been actively campaigning to designate 50 West 13th Street as an individual landmark since 2020, when it was still home to the 13th Street Repertory Company. Unfortunately, the theater had to let go of their lease in 2022, and as a result, the fate of the building is now uncertain, making the […]
Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo are rich with sites that have played invaluable roles in New York City’s and the nation’s Black history. Too many of these buildings have yet to be protected.
On October 10, 2023, Chronicle Books published The New Brownies’ Book: A Love Letter to Black Families. It’s an anthology assembled by Karida L. Brown and Charly Palmer that combines the work of more than 50 contemporary Black artists and writers with selections published over a century ago from the original Brownies’ Book. Published by […]
The dance performance of “Strange Fruit” portrays the emotional journey of a white woman as she reacts in horror to the sight of lynching she witnessed and participated in. This dance interpretation of the poem by Abe Meeropol was performed by trailblazing dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist Pearl Primus at Cafe Society in April 1943, only […]
In 1951, Harry Belafonte decided he was finished with singing. For the past few years, he had been taking acting classes at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School with the influential German director Erwin Piscator, alongside Marlon Brando and Sidney Poitier. All the while he was performing with the American Negro Theater. Belafonte was […]
Author and NYC tour guide, Lawrence Henderson, is sharing his research and walking tours with Village Preservation in February 2023 as we celebrate Black History Month. First, Village Preservation participants were treated to a free opportunity to experience the first hour of Lawrence’s “You Are Here: African American Walking Tour of NYC.” Lawrence offers a unique three-part, 3 hour, downtown walking tour to New Yorkers and visitors alike. The tour is based on Lawrence’s book You Are Here – A Geographical History of Enslaved and Free Africans in Manhattan: 1613 – 1865. He will be updating a new edition of this book, which we hope to celebrate when it relaunches with a future book talk.
The 1960s saw immense change as calls for civil rights and racial justice transformed our cultural landscape. In tandem with these movements, many of which have their roots in our neighborhoods, Black artists across the country used their platforms to amplify the kaleidoscopic perspectives and experiences of black people in America. The Negro Ensemble Company […]
People of African descent have lived in the area now known as the East Village since the mid-17th century, when semi-freed African slaves of the Dutch West India Company in New Amsterdam were granted farmland here in the area that lay between the established Dutch settlement south of Wall Street and the lands still populated […]
Christopher Moore (b. January 20, 1952, d. March 13, 2022, of complications from COVID and pneumonia) was a curator, archivist, author, storyteller, researcher, and the longest-serving member of New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, from 1995 to 2015. Moore became a notable fixture in the New York City preservation movement through his work to preserve […]
Greenwich Village has long been a mecca and incubator for radical social justice advocates. With Village Preservation’s interactive map of the Greenwich Village Historic District as well as our Civil Rights and Social Justice Map, we can take a virtual walk through the neighborhood to visit significant sites related to many of these remarkable activists. […]
Beginning in the late 18th century, the area more or less defined by today’s Bleecker, Mercer, Thompson, Sullivan, MacDougal, and Carmine Streets started to grow as a free Black community in New York City. Institutions were formed — the Abyssinian Baptist Church moved to 166 Waverly Place in 1864 and stayed there for four decades; […]
As we close the chapter on yet another wild and successful of year of public programs at Village Preservation, we wanted to take the time to reflect and highlight some of 2021’s best moments. Despite the twists and turns of this year’s ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, we’ve hosted 80 different educational lectures, book talks, and walking […]
Village Preservation shares our oral history collection with the public, highlighting some of the people and stories that make Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo such unique and vibrant neighborhoods. Each includes the experiences and insights of leaders or long-time participants in the arts, culture, preservation, business, or civic life. Ayo Harrington has been […]
Amiri Baraka (October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), born Everett Leroy “LeRoi” Jones in Newark, was one of Greenwich Village’s most outspoken poets of the Black Arts Movement during the 1960s and ’70s. His political advocacy was both illuminating and confrontational, as he attempted to use his writing to document his experience of blackness […]
June is named African-American Music Appreciation Month. But insofar as it is hard to conceive of genres of American music that have not been fundamentally shaped or originated by Black musicians, every month should rightfully be African American Music Appreciation Month. Any time, however, is a good time to call attention to a few great […]
Selma Hortense Burke lived and worked at 88 East 10th Street from 1944 until at least 1949.
In our new African American History curriculum for middle school students, we explore how Jean-Michel Basquiat’s art also served as a platform for advocacy, addressing some of the most pressing issues of race and discrimination of his (and our) day. Basquiat was already a successful studio artist when, on September 15th, 1983, events transpired in […]
Village Preservation’s curriculum on Black history for middle school students focuses on local, citywide, national, and global themes and movements from pre-European settlement through the 21st century. One of the themes we explore is how voting rights and other civil rights evolved and were won by and for African Americans in our city and elsewhere […]
Village Preservation is celebrating its 40th Anniversary this year, and in honor of this momentous milestone, we have created an interactive storymap that charts the historic journey of our organization. Today, we look at the history and future of our Children’s Education program. In 1991, in partnership with the Merchant’s House Museum, we launched our […]
In the late 1880s, Brooklyn-born Sarah Smith Garnet helped found the Equal Suffrage League, a Brooklyn-based club for Black women, which worked with the Niagara Movement, a predecessor to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP.). She also served as superintendent of the Suffrage Department of the National Association of Colored Women. […]
In 1626, Paulo d’Angola arrived to New Amsterdam on the first ship bringing enslaved people to this region.
The Women’s House of Detention, an eleven-story prison in the center of Greenwich Village, closed on June 13th, 1971.
The Abyssinian Baptist Church at 136-142 West 138th Street is the home of the second oldest African-American congregation in Manhattan, and has long been a center of civil rights and social justice activism.
Harlem Renaissance painter Beauford Delaney was known for his colorful modernist compositions and unique approach to figuration. One of the most important African-American artists of the early 20th century, he often painted portraits of prominent black figures, street scenes, and abstract paintings. Delaney spent a good portion of his career in Greenwich Village, with many […]
Black History is Village history, and while many are celebrating Black Futures Month, as a historic preservation organization, we’re glad to amplify a history that often goes unnoticed in the Village. These histories live in the context of the other movements that have their roots in our neighborhoods. So many of these stories are intersectional, […]
Greenwich Village has been known throughout its existence for breaking new ground and embracing outsiders. One often-forgotten but important element of that trailblazing narrative is the extraordinary role the Village played in relation to African American history. The neighborhood was home to North America’s earliest free Black settlement in the 17th century, to some of America’s […]
Black History Month gives us the opportunity to look at an important and too often overlooked or undervalued part of American, New York, and neighborhood history and highlighting. Within our neighborhoods, there is an incredible array of African American histories, contributions, and culture all around us — sometimes hiding in plain sight. African Americans have […]
The African Free School was founded on November 2, 1787 in Lower Manhattan by the New-York Manumission Society and founding fathers Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. It was the very first school for blacks in America. Ultimately consisting of seven schools, the system’s third school was located in Greenwich Village, at 120 west 3rd Street, then known […]
February is Black History Month. We here at GVSHP are celebrating it by highlighting different sites of significance to the African-American community within our neighborhoods. We’re focusing on sites found on our new Civil Rights & Social Justice Map, discussing their connections to African-American History and the Civil Rights Movement.
