New Trailer for “New York At Its Core” Exhibit at MCNY: From Bed Stuy to Harlem The City Confronts Civil Rights

The Museum of the City of New York will launch a comprehensive exhibit, New York At Its Core, on November 18th that chronicles 400 years of the history of the city. The exhibit will occupy the entire first floor of the museum and will include 400 artifacts and significant objects ranging from those connected to Alexander Hamilton to Jay-Z. The first trailer for the exhibit, released on August, tells the story of an apple peeler – an opening to a discussion about the culinary and social history of the Lower East Side. This new trailer (above), released exclusively first to Untapped Cities by the museum, follows the story of the city’s confrontation of the civil rights movement from Bedford-Stuyvesant to Harlem.

It begins with the story of CORE, the Congress for Racial Equality, that set the stage for a new type of grass roots organizing. Craig Steven Wilder, Professor of American History at MIT, who is interviewed in the trailer says that what emerged from CORE was “an extraordinarily dynamic and creative Civil Rights style.” Lilly Tuttle, curator of New York At Its Core points out that Brooklyn CORE was one of the more radical chapters in the United States – in a movement more typically associated with the south. What comes out of this is a broader cultural moment,” she says.

The trailer then focuses on Ruby Bailey, a fashion designer and icon in Harlem during the 1960s. Her dolls and costumes were discovered after her death and are now one of the many examples of how the arts became a mode of expression for the new Afro-centric culture and Civil Rights movement.

Next, check out the first trailer for New York At Its Core. See more about the exhibit on the Museum of City of New York website.