While We Are Still Here is a 501(c)(3) organization that includes long-term residents of 409 and 555 Edgecombe Avenue—the average number of years of residence is thirty. Non-resident members are interested in helping to preserve the grand history of these important sites.
WWSH was formed as a response to the threat that each building’s history would be lost and gone forever, partially due to the passing of time, and partially due to “gentrification,” which is rapidly altering the environment.
MISSION
While We Are Still Here (WWSH) will educate, enshrine and preserve the extraordinary legacy of Harlem as an influential incubator that was vital to the intellectual, cultural, social, and political advancements of the Harlem community as well as the African Diaspora.
VISION
While We Are Still Here ensures that the “post-gentrification” community of Harlem and beyond will honor and find a meaningful connection to the legacy of African American achievement, and its paramount importance to world culture.
INSPIRATION
“…[H]eritage in all its forms must be preserved, enhanced, and handed on to future generations as a record of human experience and aspirations, so as to foster creativity in all its diversity and to inspire genuine dialogue among cultures.”
—From the United Nations’ Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity and Creativity, Article 7
FUNDING AND PROGRAMMING PARTNERS
While We Are Still Here is proud to be a partner of:
National Trust for Historic Preservation African American Cultural
Heritage Action Fund /
This project was funded by a grant from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation with support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
African Voices
Apollo Theater
Barnard College
Broadway Housing Communities
i, too, collective (defunct)
Harlem Entrepreneurial Fund
Humanities NY
Jazz Foundation of America
National Museum of African American History and Culture
New York Community Trust
New York Life Foundation
Thank you to New York Life for the $50K grant that will allow WWSH to install markers for the SIGNS OF THE TIMES| Harlem Heritage Markers Project
Pomeroy Foundation
Puffin Foundation
Teachers College Harlem Education History Project
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
West Harlem Development Corporation
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.