The CCNY Place Memory & Culture Incubator (PMCI) at the Spitzer School of Architecture recently hosted an outdoor exhibition event at 135th Street with partners that included the New Heritage Theatre, Schomburg Center, Harlem YMCA, Harlem Cultural Archives, and newly re-launched Yoruba Cultural Center.
The multi-site activation, culminating at the New Heritage Theatre Group’s offices and adjacent lot, marked the end of this spring’s “Generative Histories Harlem” course collaboration, the flagship curriculum tied to the Mellon-supported Place Memory & Culture Incubator project, now in its second year. Spitzer School of Architecture undergraduate students, alongside local stakeholders, set up numerous installations and site-specific workshops at historic sites along 135th, including Harlem Hospital, the Schomburg Center, Harlem YMCA, and New Heritage Theatre Group’s offices.
Cruz Angel performing with Voza Rivers of New Heritage Theatre group and Barbara Horowitz of Community Works. (Jerome Haferd photo) 
Community members engage with interactive installations. (Jerome Haferd photo) 
Kevin C. Matthews, deputy director of operations & external engagement, at Schomburg Center, views installation at Harlem Hospital. (Jerome Haferd photo) 
Luther Isler performing with New Heritage Theatre group. (Jerome Haferd photo) 
CCNY students at Harlem YMCA. (Pedro Cruz Cruz photo)
The activations ranged from posters and zines inspired by Malcolm X to a virtual reality display that allows viewers to walk through time and experience the Harlem YMCA when historic figures like Langston Hughes stayed and gathered there. The day ended at the lot next to the giant mural of jazz great Dizzy Gillespie, with music and performances by local artists Luther Isler and Cruz Angel. Undergraduate architecture and design students staged interactive installations that engaged passersby with Central Harlem’s living history — some of which that is rapidly disappearing from the built environment. Guests included Voza Rivers, head of the New Heritage Theatre; Glenn Hunter, Harlem Cultural Archive; Katherine Alotta, Harlem YMCA; Kevin Matthews, deputy director of the Schomburg Center; and Imani Rashid, Yoruba Cultural Center.
The community-partnered course was coordinated by Professor Jerome Haferd, architect, Spitzer faculty member, and PMCI co-director, along with four other faculty members and the PMCI team. Dean Marta Gutman co-directs the project with Haferd. It began in fall 2023 and seeks to engage the Harlem community and expand preservation practice through a number of initiatives that are made possible through the grant’s support. For more info, visit ssa.ccny.cuny.edu.