We live now in a moment of enormous danger—our very lives and the cohesion of our national (and global) society threatened by the COVID-19 virus. As is typical when disaster looms, Black Americans and Latinx Americans are particularly exposed to all the negative consequences of the pandemic.
What better time, then, for Barbara Horowitz and Voza Rivers of Community Works and New Heritage Theatre Group, respectively, to build on their two-decades-long Harlem-based arts activist collaboration to launch a new website—harlem-is.org. The website displays in a vibrant, kaleidoscopic and spiritually comprehensive fashion what Barbara’s and Voza’s goal has always been: to explore the past and present of Harlem by examining its multifaceted, multilingual, multiracial and multicultural artistic expression.
The harlem-is.org website showcases much of the work the Community Works-New Heritage Theatre Group collaboration—and its numerous partners within and outside Harlem’s boundaries—have done over the decades: exhibits of the work of and biographies of individual artists and organizations and important moments in Harlem history in music, theater and dance since the early 20th century when Harlem took shape as a Black community.
The website also highlights the collaboration’s involvement of youth in both Harlem’s many artistic groups and in its own research and interviewing work that produced the voluminous mini-profiles of the community’s significant arts figures down through the decades for the exhibits.
The focus on helping youth learn about Harlem’s history and present led the collaboration to produce a 100-page “Making a Difference” curriculum guide that schools and community organizations can use to help students in grades 2 through 12 explore the different facets of Harlem or any other neighborhood or community.
Linking Harlem’s past and present artists and cultural production with the Harlem community as a whole suffuses both the individual exhibits and the entire website with what has always been the primary operating principle of Harlem as a Black community: Not just to survive, but to thrive even in the face of adversity.
That’s one reason it’s particularly appropriate that the visually stunning physical “harlem is…” exhibition series is now being permanently installed at the Harlem Hospital Center. It will be opened to the public when safe to do so.
The hospital not only has a rich history as Harlem’s premier medical institution, it also has a remarkable history as, literally, a special kind of art gallery—one that, as Sylvia L. White, the hospital’s chief of staff, writes in the “harlem is…” commemorative journal, utilizes “the healing power of art” and “our hospital’s deep respect” for Harlem. Among its artistic treasures, the hospital houses the world-famous 1930s WPA murals, which were the first to depict people of color as medical professionals.
White adds, “Original oil paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints and mixed-media pieces help us create a therapeutic environment in both public spaces and patient-care areas that strengthen and encourage our staff, our patients and our visitors.”
In response to the public health crisis of the virus and to the systemic racism that confronts communities of color, the website contains a new “harlem is…Healing” component that tells the stories of Harlem individuals and organizations from the frontlines of health, religion, youth, art and culture who are helping to keep Harlem whole. In addition to new stories, the website offers interactive activities for schools and communities, free performances, workshops and community dialogues.
Future plans for augmenting the website include the exhibitions “Latin Roots: East Harlem” and “harlem is…The Gospel Tradition.” In other words, the Community Works/New Heritage Theatre Group’s collaborative effort to tell the story of Harlem in full is far from finished.
Although the pandemic has postponed the physical launch of exhibitions at the Harlem Hospital Center, the creation of the harlem-is.org website ensures the permanent accessibility of the “harlem-is…” story to individuals across the local, national and global communities. Now more than ever, it offers a pointed, inspiring reminder that our goal should be what Harlem’s goal has always been: to thrive even in the face of adversity.
Visit www.harlem-is.org, and for further information about Community Works’ and New Heritage Theatre Group’s programming, email info@communityworksnyc.org.