2019 events

In the Face of What We Remember: Oral Histories of 409 and 555 Edgecombe Avenue chronicles the fascinating history of the renowned movers and shakers who lived/live in two of Sugar Hill’s most iconic apartment buildings. Captured on film, the buildings’ elders share memories of their famous neighbors, including W.E.B. Du Bois, Madam Stephanie St. Clair, Aaron Douglass, Thurgood Marshall, and a myriad of others whose cultural and political legacies influenced the entire world. The documentary puts "everyday" faces on these celebrated men and women, who symbolize courage, strength, leadership, and commitment.

Produced by While We Are Still Here, Jamal Joseph, and Michael Tyner and directed by Karen D. Taylor

Grinnell Community Room 800 Riverside Drive  New York, NY
$40 Includes a Signed Book and Unlimited Desserts

With a foreword by John Singleton

"No one knows more (or has written more extensively) about the history of African-Americans' contributions to cinema than Donald Bogle." Leonard Maitlin

Donald Bogle is the foremost scholar of African American cinema, whose groundbreaking publication Toms, Coons, Mulattos, Mammies, and Bucks, is the gold standard for Black film history.

APOLLO THEATER HARLEM, NY

Ahead of the screening and live music soundtrack performance of Shaft, Greg Tate, founder and musical director of Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber, will guide us in a consideration of Isaac Hayes’s timeless soundtrack and other classics from the era when Soul and R&B took over the movie screen. Panelists also include Lisa Cortes, filmmaker, and Nelson George, writer, film and music producer.

Presented by the Apollo Theater Education Program in collaboration with the organization, While We Are Still Here; with Karen D. Taylor, founder and executive director, While We Are Still Here (facilitator)

Thursdays, November 1 and November 8  |  3 PM (Oral Histories)
7:30 PM (Music)
Bill’s Place 148 W. 133rd Street. Harlem, NY

On March 22, 2018, the famed nightspot, St. Nick’s Pub, burned down. For decades, the Sugar Hill Quartet was the house band for the Monday night jam sessions. While We Are Still Here will be taping the oral histories of SHQ—Patience Higgins, Marcus Persiani, and David F. Gibson—as well as Bill Saxton, who was also a Pub presence, and other musicians, patrons, and some of the proprietors, for a film short.

The tapings take place at the historic Bill’s Place (owned by Bill Saxton and his wife, Theda Saxton, Ph.D.) It was the site of Billie Holiday’s first gig in New York City.

If you would like to share your oral history of St. Nick’s Pub, please visit wwsh.nyc to register, or call 929-266-3952.

An afternoon of music, featuring artists of international renown.

— Regina Carter-Xavier Davis Duo

— Sugar Hill Quartet with TC the 3rd

— Firey String Sistas!

— Uptown Brass Quintet, with Marshall Sealey

Saturday, September 8th. |  3 PM
Sugar Hill Luminaries Lawn
Edgecombe Avenue and 155th Street  Harlem, NY

MaryLouise Patterson, a pediatrician in clinical practice, and Evelyn Louise Crawford, a retired arts administrator and consultant, are the daughters of Langston Hughes's cherished friends Evelyn Graves Crawford, Matt N. Crawford, Louise Thompson Patterson, and William L. Patterson. Hughes was a frequent guest in the homes of the two families and was like an uncle to Evelyn Louise and MaryLouise.

These discussions will be held on three consecutive 

Sundays in March, from 7 to 8 PM.

Online

Led by a discussion leader on Facebook at Read ing Across Harlem’s page, participants will share their impressions of the following excerpts, in a public dialogue. Discussion leaders follow.

March 11, Garnette Cadogan, “Upon Arriving in Harlem,” Gordon Parks

March 18, TBD, “Hostess of Harlem,” Claude McKay

March 25, Rosemari Mealy, “Minister Malcolm X,” Malcolm X

Theater-In-Black-In Harlem and a Performance 

Monday, February 26th  |  6:30 PM
The Schomburg Center for Research In Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Boulevard. Harlem, NY

With Daniel Carlton, Voza Rivers, Byron C. Saunders, Benja K. Thomas, Susan Watson Turner

The history of theater in Harlem has been long and illustrious. This conversation will touch upon the legacies of theater companies that include W.E.B. Du Bois and Regina Anderson’s KRIGWA; Langston Hughes and Louise Thompson’s Suitcase Theater; and the famed American Negro Theater on the development of successive companies that include those developed by Amiri Baraka, Gertrude Jennette, Barbara Ann Teer, Voza Rivers, and Jamal Joseph.

“Resonating Resistance: Voices of 409 and 555 Edgecombe Avenue,” is directed by Daniel Carlton, and features some of Harlem’s greatest actors, who will bring to life excerpted works by a few prolific writers and activists, including W.E.B. Du Bois, Louise Thompson-Patterson, and Marvel Cooke.