Schomburg Centennial Festival

Photo: 2019 Schomburg Center Literary Festival, author book signing; Isseu Diouf/Schomburg Center

Join us at our Schomburg Centennial Festival for a celebration of the African Diaspora through the power of literature, literacy, and community!​​

The Harlem Renaissance was part of our historic engagement with authors of African descent and a century championing literacy and intellectual exploration in Harlem. We continue that tradition by convening communities of book lovers to interact with their favorite authors and comic book creators on 135th Street between Malcolm X and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevards in Harlem, New York.

The day begins with opening procession and performance by Brooklyn United Marching Band, a Tribute to Nikki Giovanni , and a keynote conversation with activist Raquel Willis, author of The Risk It Takes to Bloom: On Life and Liberation. We continue with book talks and workshops featuring Imani Perry, David Crownson, Damon Young, Ibi Zoboi, Alejandro Heredia, Mahogany Browne, Kiese Laymon, Tricia Hersey, Glory Edim, The Moth, and more. A fan favorite from our Black Comic Book Festival, the Very Black Cosplay Showcase brings characters to life! Join the fun at 2PM on the outdoor 135th Street stage or enjoy the show from the crowd.

All day you can take part in readings, panel discussions, workshops, photo activations, bookish marketplace, mobile library, and more. We will close the day with musical performances and an old-school block party with Slick Rick and The Soapbox Presents: Stoop Sessions and special guest DJ, blending the best of classic hip-hop and fresh R&B on our newly added 4th stage!!

Leadership support for the Schomburg Center's Centennial is provided by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) and Andreas C. Dracopoulos. Additional support is provided by Carnegie Corporation of New York. The 2025 Schomburg Center Centennial Festival is powered by Puma.

The festival will take place in Schomburg’s landmark building at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard, as well as outdoors on 135th Street between Malcolm X and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevards.

Schedule and participants are subject to change.

Langston Hughes Auditorium | Schomburg Center (INDOOR)

Brooklyn United Marching Band

Tribute to Nikki Giovanni

KEYNOTE CONVERSATION: Raquel Willis, The Risk It Takes to Bloom: On Life and Liberation

Kids Clubhouse | 135TH STREET (OUTDOOR)

Children’s Author Readings, Live Music, art making, and more Powered by Woke Baby!

featuring Raquel Willis, The Risk It Takes to Bloom: On Life and Liberation

1PM (45 mins)

THE SOUTH HAS SOMETHING TO SAY

Kiese Laymon, City Summer, Country Summer

Imani Perry, Black in Blues

Maurice Carlos Ruffins, The American Daughter

Moderator: DéLana R. A. Dameron, Redwood Court

2PM (45 mins)

THAT'S HOW THEY GET YOU

A game show-like celebration of the new anthology collection That’s How They Get You: An Unruly Anthology of Black American Humor, a collection of Black humor from some of the most acclaimed writers and performers working today. Damon Young (host and editor) and fellow contributors Mahogany Browne, Wyatt Cenac, Hillary Crosely Coker, Alexander Hardy, Clover Hope, Shamira Ibrahim, Ladan Osman and Nafissa Thompson-Spires compete in an absurd Black trivia game show featuring pop culture, history, literature, and more.

3PM (45 mins)

THE ART OF CULTURAL CRITICISM

Nan Collymore, Contemporary And

Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker

Roxane Gay

Moderator: Daniella Brito

4PM (45 mins)

STORYTELLING AND SUSPENSE IN CONTEMPORARY FICTION

Iris Mwanza, The Lions’ Den

Yasmin Angoe, Not What She Seems

11:45 - 1:45 PM (120 mins)
WORKSHOP: INTRO TO PERSONAL STORYTELLING

Presented by The Moth

There is power in sharing your personal stories—the power to spark meaningful connections, to deepen self-awareness, and even to inspire social change.

Registration required and opens May 31.

2PM (45 mins)

FOLLOWING TONI'S LEAD: BLACK EDITORS SHAPING LITERATURE TODAY

Dana Williams, Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer's Legendary Editorship

Chris Jackson, EVP, Publisher, & Editor-in-Chief One World

Yahdon Israel, Sr. Editor, Simon & Schuster

and additional guests

3PM (45 mins)

HOW TO DRAW BLACK COMIC BOOKS

Tim Fielder is an Illustrator, concept designer, cartoonist, and animator born in Tupelo, Mississippi. Tim has worked over the years in the storyboarding, film visual development, gaming, comics, and animation industries for clients as varied as Marvel Comics (‘Dr Dre: Man With A Cold Cold Heart’), The Village Voice, Tri-Star Pictures (‘The Mothership Connection’), to Ubisoft Entertainment (‘Batman: Vengeance).

Akinseye Brown is an artist, illustrator, and writer that uses African culture, science-fiction, and fantasy to tell visual stories. Brown has 20-years experience in illustrating

4PM (45 mins)

BOOKS TURNED TO FILM & TV:

David Crownson, Writer, creator of Harriet Tubman Demon Slayer

1PM (45 mins)

THIS COULD BE LOVE

Musih Tedji Xaviere, These Letters End in Tears

Chukwuebuka Ibeh, Blessing

Ani Kayode Somtochukwu, And Then He Sang a Lullaby

and more invited authors

2PM (45 mins)

WHO WE ARE, HOW WE TELL IT: STORIES OF COMMUNITY AND PUBLIC SPACES

Katie Mitchell, Prose to the People: A Celebration of Black Bookstores

Irvin Weathersby, In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art & Public Space

3PM (45 mins)

A LITERARY LIFE AND CAREER

Tina Andrews, Queen Charlotte Sophia

Seph Rodney, Artist As Writers: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life

Tre Johnson, Black Genius

Karon Taborn, Walking Harlem: The Ultimate Guide to the Cultural Capital of Black America

Moderator: Steven Fullwood, Co-Editor of Artist As Writers: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life

4PM (45 mins)

FUTURE HISTORIES: NEW WAYS OF TELLING DIFFICULT HISTORIES OF VIOLENCE

Chigozie Obioma, Road to Country

Ivana Akotowaa Ofori, The Year of Return

12PM (45 mins)

LITERARY DISRUPTORS, BUILDING A LITERARY MARKET

Glory Edim, founder of Well-Read Black Girl and author of Gather Me: A Memoir in Praise of the Books That Saved Me

OlaRonke Akinmowo, founder of Free Black Women's Library

Valerie Brandes, British publisher , founder and CEO of Jacaranda Books

Moderator: Leslie-Ann Murray, Brown Girl Book Lover

1PM (45 mins)

IN CONVERSATION: HOWARD FRENCH

Author of Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War and his latest book The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide

Moderator: Brian Jones, PhD, Director, NYPL Center for Educators & Schools

2PM (45 mins)

ROOTS AND ROUTES: PERSPECTIVES ON CULTURE AND IDENTITY

FICTION

Morgan Jerkins, Zeal: A Novel

Alejandro Heredia, Loca: A Novel

3PM (45 mins)

IN CONVERSATION: TRICIA HERSHEY, We Will Rest!

Moderator: Glory Edim, Well-Read Black Girl

12:45 PM (30 mins)

POETRY FOR OUR TIME

Melania Luisa Marte, Plantains and Our Becoming

1:30 PM (30 mins)

George M. Johnson, All Boys Aren’t Blue

2:15PM (30 mins)

POETRY FOR OUR TIME

Samiya Bashir, I Hope This Helps

3PM (30 mins)

Mahogany Browne, A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe

12PM (45 mins)

BLACK UTOPIAS: IMAGINING ALTERNATIVE FUTURES THROUGH LITERATURE

Cebo Campbell, Sky Full of Elephants

Andrea Hairston, Archangels of Funk

Clarence A. Haynes, The Ghosts of Gwendolyn Montgomery

Erika Hardison, Fabulize Magazine Presents: MSAB! Mixtape Vol.1

Isis Asare, Afrofuturism Short Stories

1PM (45 mins)

MEGASCOPE

Anthony Pugh, The Story Eater

Anita Okoye, Megascope Adult Graphic Novels Editor

Chuck Collins, Bounce!, Altar to an Erupting Sun

2PM (45 mins)

BEYOND THE STARS

Sheree Renée Thomas, Nine Bar Blues, Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora

Ibi Zoboi, (S)kin, Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler

Tochi Onyebuchi, Harmattan Season

2:45 PM

VERY BLACK COSPLAY

A fan favorite from our Black Comic Book Festival, the Very Black Cosplay Showcase brings characters to life! Join the fun on the outdoor 135th Street stage or enjoy the show from the crowd.

Slick Rick and The Soapbox Presents: Stoop Sessions, blending the best of classic hip-hop and fresh R&B on our newly added 4th stage!

This year, we’re thrilled to welcome the return of the Woke Baby Festivaland introduce Jump Up Jamboree. The day will Inspire young readers with storytelling, live music, yoga, crafts, hand games, Double Dutch, book signings, and more

The Marketplace located on 135th Street between Malcolm X Blvd. and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd. is a great place to support local authors and the Schomburg Pop-Up Shop including:

Calling All BLERDS! Swing by Comic Book Rowand grab all your favorite comics, anime, and sci-fi reads.

Mobile library, library card sign up, story time, and book giveaways!

A Reason to Smile Books~ Ariance Jewelry~Black Woman Be Whole~Books by Yvette Cole~Earth Tone Kingdom~LionSky Publishing~Revolution Books~Salaam's Ice Cream Truck~The Studio Museum~ Black Gotham Experience LLC~Total Equity Now~Walk Tall Girl~Harlem Writers Guild, Inc. ~ Hip Hop Comix n Flix ~ Hiztory Bookz and more!

GET CENTENNIAL UPDATES

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AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING Programs are photographed and recorded by the Schomburg Center. Attending this event indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any all purposes of the New York Public Library.

PRESS Please send all press inquiries (photo, video, interviews, audio-recording, etc) at least 24-hours before the day of the program to Leah Drayton at bGVhaGRyYXl0b24gfCBueXBsICEgb3Jn.

Please note that professional video recordings are prohibited without expressed consent.

E-TRANSPORTATION NYPL policy prohibits electric transportation devices (e.g., motorbikes, e-bikes, e-scooters, e-skateboards) from being brought into or stored at library sites for any length of time, as this is the best way to keep our spaces & people safe.

ACCESSIBLILITYMAccessibility requests can be made by e-mail YWNjZXNzaWJpbGl0eSB8IG55cGwgISBvcmc=.

Leadership support for the Schomburg Center's Centennial is provided by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) and Andreas C. Dracopoulos.

Additional support is provided by Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Ford Foundation.

The 2025 Schomburg Center Centennial Festival is powered by Puma.

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