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In conjunction with the MoMA’s exhibit One-Way Ticket: Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series and Other Visions of the Great Movement North, the museum has released an online walking tour to experience the Harlem that inspired Jacob Lawrence as a young painter. The tour is narrated by WQXR host Terrance McKnight, with commentary by Harlem leaders. Here’s a recap of the locations included in the tour, many that have been covered on Untapped Cities in the past:
Jacob Lawrence remembers transferring paintings onto the walls of a WPA mural series here with his artistic mentor, Charles Alston. The murals are inside but recreated on the newer glass exterior. Harlem Hospital was also been location where Martin Luther King, Jr. was taken after he was stabbed in Harlem and where Malcolm X headlined a coalition of activists and politicians who supported the workers striking for better wages and benefits.
Illustration by AFineLyne
One of the best churches known for their gospel services is Abyssinian Baptist Church, the third oldest Baptist church in America. Founded in 1809, it was the largest congregation of Baptists in the world when Jacob Lawrence and his family joined in 1930. This church is a major landowner in Harlem and known for their community development and social services.
Illustration by AFineLyne
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research unit of The New York Public Library and devoted to collecting, preserving and providing access to resources documenting the experiences of peoples of African descent throughout the world. For Jacob Lawrence, the branch of the New York Public Library at the time, “it was a place for community engagement…educational empowerment, for literacy, for people to have a safe haven and a sanctuary to try to figure out where they fit in the world,” says the director of the Schomburg Center. Lawrence spent time here taking classes and participating in lecture, and attributes his interest in Black history from his community and after-school sessions at the library.
The Studio Museum in Harlem. Illustration by AFineLyne
Since 1968, The Studio Museum in Harlem has been promoting the works of artists of African descent. Their Artist-in-Residence program has supported nearly 100 artists and the permanent collection has many of Jacob Lawrence’s work, including The Architect.
Check out 8 other locations on the MoMA walking tour of Harlem. Next, read on for 10 Places to Honor Martin Luther King, Jr. in NYC. This article also written by AFineLyne.
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