Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins is an American jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. In a seven-decade career, he has recorded over sixty albums as a leader. A number of his compositions, including "St. Thomas", "Oleo", "Doxy", "Pent-Up House", and "Airegin", have become jazz standards. Rollins has been called "the greatest living improviser" and the "Saxophone Colossus".
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, was a historian, writer, and activist. Schomburg was a Puerto Rican of African and German descent who moved to the United States and researched and raised awareness of the great contributions that Afro-Latin Americans and Afro-Americans have made to society. He was an important intellectual figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Over the years, he collected literature, art, slave narratives, and other materials of African history, which were purchased to become the basis of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, named in his honor, at the New York Public Library (NYPL) branch in Harlem.
John Henrik Clarke, was an American historian, professor, and a pioneer in the creation of Pan-African and Africana studies, and professional institutions in academia starting in the late 1960s.
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research library of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and an archive repository for information on people of African descent worldwide. Located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard between West 135th and 136th Streets in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, it has, almost from its inception, been an integral part of the Harlem community. It is named for Afro-Puerto Rican scholar Arturo Alfonso Schomburg.
Robert Keith McFerrin Sr. was an American operatic baritone and the first African-American man to sing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. His voice was described by critic Albert Goldberg in the Los Angeles Times as "a baritone of beautiful quality, even in all registers, and with a top that partakes of something of a tenor's ringing brilliance." He was the father of Grammy Award-winning vocalist Robert McFerrin Jr., better known as Bobby McFerrin.
Opera Ebony is an African-American opera company, which have performed Mozart in Harlem to African-American Heritage concerts in Iceland. Gershwin in Moscow to Duke Ellington in the Caribbean. Benjamin Matthews, Sister M. Elise Sisson, SBS (1897–1982), and Wayne Sanders founded Opera Ebony in 1973. It has served as a professional platform for thousands of American artists, administrators and technical staff helping them to refine their talent and perfect their operatic craft. In New York City, Opera Ebony has performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the World Trade Center, the Beacon Theatre, Langston Hughes Theater and the Manhattan Center. Additionally, for ten years the company presented grand opera at Philadelphia's Academy of Music. Since 1988, Opera Ebony's repertoire has found Brazil, Russia, Estonia, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Canada, Switzerland and Martinique. The company has also partnered with several major international orchestras, opera companies and music festivals including the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Finnish National Opera, the Estonia Philharmonic and the Savolinna Music Festival.
Troubled Island is an American opera in three acts composed by William Grant Still, with a libretto begun by poet Langston Hughes and completed by Verna Arvey. She married the composer following their collaboration.
Martha Diaz is a Colombian-American community organizer, media producer, and social entrepreneur who is best known as the founder of the H2O International Film Festival.
X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X is an opera with music by Anthony Davis and libretto by Thulani Davis. Based on the life of the civil rights leader Malcolm X. The opera premiered in a semi-staged production in Philadelphia in 1985 and received its first fully staged production at the New York City Opera in 1986.
Newark Symphony Hall at 1020 Broad Street in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, United States, was built in 1925 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. It was known for many years as The Mosque Theater.
Michael Bramwell is an American visual artist based in North Carolina. He graduated from Oakwood University, Huntsville, Alabama and received a Master of Arts from Columbia University, and an M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and is an alumnus of the MoMA/P.S.1 National Studio Program and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine.
Jean Blackwell Hutson (born Jean Blackwell; September 7, 1914 – February 4, 1998 was an African-American librarian, archivist, writer, curator, educator, and later chief of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The Schomburg Center dedicated their Research and Reference Division in honor of Jean Blackwell Hutson in honor of Ms. Hutson.
Errol Stanley Sawyer is an American photographer who currently lives and works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Gay Men of African Descent (GMAD) is the largest and oldest African American organization dedicated exclusively to the well being of black gay men. GMAD was founded in 1986 in New York City by the Reverend Charles Angel. The group worked to address the unique issues to black gay men in America through educational, social, and political mobilization.
Ernestine Rose was a librarian at the New York Public Library responsible for the purchase and incorporation of the Arthur A. Schomburg collection.
African Film Festival, Inc. (AFF) is a non-profit cultural organization that presents an annual film festival and year-round community programs. Based in New York City, the organization was founded in 1990. The organization is dedicated to promoting greater understanding of African culture through film.
Ismay Andrews was one of the earliest major teachers of African dance in the United States, whose career spanned from 1929 through World War II.
Ming Smith is an African American photographer. She was the first African-American female photographer whose work was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
The Black Theatre Alliance (BTA) was a federation of African American theater companies in New York City that was founded in 1971 by playwrights Delano Stewart, Hazel Bryant, and Roger Furman. Duane Jones was executive director from 1976 to 1981. The organziation sought to provide institutional support and resources to independent artists and touring companies. The BTA had a national membership of over sixty black theater and dance companies before being reported as defunct in 1984.
