Morningside Lights returns with The Open Book, a celebration of the free exchange of ideas and an homage to the libraries that preserve access to knowledge and affirm our freedom to read. Presented in partnership with the Columbia University Libraries and The New York Public Library, each of the 50+ community-built lanterns will pay tribute to a book that inspires, enlightens, and shapes how we see the world.
The third edition of the Uptown Triennial presents work by artists from Upper Manhattan and beyond that is representative of the history, culture, and contemporary issues of Harlem and spans the visual arts, media, and sound. The 1980s and 2000s saw musicians and rappers pushing both the sonic landscape and the changing representation of Black urban society. A new visual aesthetic followed with its own language and the next generation of visual artists became interested in exploring the intersection and/or juxtaposition of sonic and visual traditions.
The Harlem Chamber Players_image 1 Photo Credit: Bob Curtis.
The Harlem Chamber Players (Founding Executive and Artistic Director Liz Player) will mark its 15th Anniversary and Black Music Month with a musical extravaganza Harlem Songfest II,celebrating Black opera singers and the music of Black composers, including women, on Friday, June 9, at 7 p.m. at Miller Theatre at Columbia University (2960 Broadway at West 116th Street in Manhattan). Multifaceted artist Damien Sneed will serve as music director and conductor for the event, which will also feature arias from the European canon.The special concert is hosted by WQXR radio personality and Harlem Chamber Players (HCP) Artistic Advisor Terrance McKnight and presented in association with the Manhattan School of Music. Tickets for Harlem Songfest II— ranging from $20-$40, with $50 VIP tickets — are on sale Here. They can also be purchased by calling 212-854-7799 (Wed-Fri from 2 p.m.-6 p.m.).
Dead Lecturer / distant relative: Notes from the Woodshed, 1950-1980 focuses on works by Asian American and African American artists whose approaches to abstraction provided alternatives to prevailing vocabularies for representation and resistance during the social movements of the 1960s and 70s, and for whom the parameters of visibility continue to remain a problem for thought today.
With a new President now firmly in place, Lenfest Kids explores our ability to bring hope for repair of a particular kind ~ Social Repair. The three films they have chosen all speak in different ways to the possibility of social change and the need to make the world a better place for all
Filipe Branquinho, Jorge Macate, Padeiro (Jorge Macate, Baker), 2011. Courtesy the artist.
After the End: Timing Socialism in Contemporary African Artpresents a selection of works engaging with the history of African socialisms. It features artists looking at countries including Angola, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique. The exhibition is the first in North America to explore aesthetic responses to African socialisms and their aftermath.
Frédéric Bazille, Young Woman with Peonies, French, 1841 – 1870, 1870, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Image via Wallach Gallery, Columbia University