Virtual Presentation: Harlem - Rural to Renaissance

A century after the Harlem Renaissance emerged as a cultural, literary, and artistic force, the neighborhood remains one of the most mythologized places in America. But behind that mythology is a complex story, beginning with the village of Nieuw Haarlem, stretching through waves of developers and reformers, and transformed by Black migrants who reshaped the neighborhood and the nation. This talk, which draws on centuries of scholarship as well as the current exhibition The Gay Harlem Renaissance, will explore Harlem’s built environment, its political and economic life, and the people whose everyday lives made the Harlem Renaissance possible.

Author and historian James Nevius (Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City and Footprints in New York) frequently speaks on New York City topics. Most recently at the New York Historical, he led a lecture entitled The Wedding of the Waters: The 200th Anniversary of the Erie Canal.