Ralph Ellison lived in Harlem from the late 1930s until his death on April 16, 1994. He was a prominent figure in the neighborhood’s overlapping literary and artistic communities. Ellison at 100: Reading Invisible Man honors this legacy through a landmark collaboration between two leading Harlem-based cultural institutions. The participating artists in the program have been specially curated by the Studio Museum and the Schomburg Center teams, following in both institutions’ tradition of exploring Harlem as a site for artistic and literary creation.
Ellison at 100: Reading Invisible Man is organized by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and The Studio Museum in Harlem with the generous support of the Ralph and Fanny Ellison Charitable Trust.
10am Session: Ralph Ellison and the Future:
Youth Reading Invisible Man
Ramya Ramana, 2014 NYC Youth Poet Laureate
Arnell Calderon — junior at The New York, City iSchool and 2013 participant, Expanding the Walls: Making Connections Between Photography, History and Community at the Studio Museum
Christopher Neal — sophomore at Manhattan Hunter Science High Schooland 2014 participant, Expanding the Walls Participants in the The Junior Scholars Program at the Schomburg Center
1pm Session
1 p.m.
Bill T. Jones, Prologue
Music by Aaron Diehl
2 p.m.
Oren Jacoby and friends, Chapter Nine
Alondra Nelson, Chapter Eleven
Deborah Willis, Chapter Seventeen
3 p.m.
Jonathan McCrory, Chapter Twenty-One
Greg Tate, Chapter Twenty-Three
Music by Marcelle Davies-Lashley
4 p.m.
Terrance McKnight, Epilogue
Music by Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber / REBELLUM