Miss Harlem Shake 2025 donates winnings to the Schomburg Center

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Summertime in Harlem serves as the perfect time to enjoy a shake — and appreciate and support Black research and culture.

Recently, Harlem Shake announced Tanasia Smith as their Miss Harlem Shake 2025 winner. The young artist from Harlem, a multifaceted creative and educator, chose to donate her charity winnings to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the “world-leading cultural institution devoted to the research, preservation, and exhibition of materials focused on African American, African Diasporic, and African experiences,” via their website.

The center is named for activist and historian Arturo A. Schomburg, who studied printing and Black literature as a youth before moving from Puerto Rico to Harlem in 1891. (Schomburg also wrote for the New York Amsterdam News.) The center houses and continues to preserve Schomburg’s collections.

Brenika Banks photo

“History must restore what slavery took away, for it is the social damage of slavery that the present generation must repair and offset,” Schomburg once said. As the center celebrates its 100th anniversary, his mission and legacy continue.

As a result of her donation, Smith recently enjoyed an exclusive Schomburg Center tour where K.C. Matthews, deputy director of operations, showed her around.

“I am so honored to be given this special tour and to see all the history and the people who have graced the streets of Harlem,” said Smith. She described having chills after seeing and learning about the center’s collection. “[Arturo Schomburg] knew what he was doing, and he was fully dedicated to it.”

Schomburg’s original collection of 10,000 items has grown to more than 11 million. “Arturo would be thrilled to see his vision still alive, still prospering,” said Matthews. “It’s really special to know that Arturo’s vision means something all around the world.”

Several significant Black research centers focus on preserving and promoting Black history and culture, including Florida’s African American Research Library and Cultural Center, which was inspired by the Schomburg Center; Harvard University’s W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute; and the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“I am so grateful that [Schomburg] was able to cultivate and collect everything that he had, that we had, that we created, so that I can appreciate it and learn from it,” said Smith.

Matthews noted that Smith is “more than a contestant” and winner of a competition — she is an artist. He acknowledged Smith as a photographer and said, “It’s fine to have people pay you to do your work, but find things you want to document on your own.” He told Smith that what she documents now will be history one day, and people will be interested. “Find a niche of your own,” Matthews said.

“Having young artists come to the Schomburg Center — we want her to see herself as being in this collection one day,” said Matthews. “This is what our collection is supposed to do: inspire people with their artistry.”

Matthews provided an informative and enjoyable tour for Smith. Afterward, she said her favorite moment was the Langston Hughes Lobby, which is home to “Rivers,” an art installation and memorial in honor of poet Langston Hughes and Schomburg. “It made me emotional, and it really resonated with me,” said Smith.

Arturo Schomburg’s legacy and vision will continue as the center hosts events celebrating its 100-year milestone in researching and preserving African diasporic experiences. As Schomburg said in his 1925 essay, “The Negro Digs Up His Past”: “The American Negro must remake his past in order to make his future.”

For more info, visit nypl.org/locations/schomburg.