Did you know that Village Preservation members receive advance notice of many of our public programs? Our tours and other programs sometimes offer limited seating or spaces. By becoming a member, you can take advantage of that advanced notice and register before the general public. Find out how to become a member here.

For videos, details, and other media from our past programs, click here.

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Black History in Greenwich Village: Session 1 — The Geography and History of Early Manhattan

Join Village Preservation for the return of our popular Black History in Greenwich Village Series. First developed as a part of our renowned, first-of-its-kind children’s education programs, it was so popular that we have now developed an adult version of this program to share with our entire community. Now updated with new and additional content we welcome the general public, teachers, students, and everyone interested to join us for this exciting four-part series.

The first session will focus on the early history of Manhattan. Beginning with the Native American Lenape presence in New York City, we will explore the lives and impact of the first nonnative visitors, residents, and businesses in Lower Manhattan. African American communities in Greenwich Village, such as Little Africa, will be covered as well as the leaders of this community. You’ll learn about the formation of the first free Black community in North America, located in our neighborhoods, starting around 1643, whose residents included Manuel Groot (or Big Manuel), Simon Congo, and Manuel de Gerrit de Rues. We’ll discuss the role of the New Amsterdam director general in affecting the lives of black people in the colony, including free Black men and women in the area of the Village known as the “Land of the Blacks.”

We will learn about the lives and experiences of people of African descent who were trafficked to New York City through the transatlantic slave trade from the 1620s to 1808. We will look at how slavery was enacted and enforced under Dutch, English, and then American control of New York City. Voting rights under these different controlling interests will also be explored. This session will begin to delve into the history and impact of the rebellion of enslaved people, the manumission process, and the abolition movement.

Each of these free sessions will be held via Zoom and requires pre-registration. Check out the individual sessions for additional details about the content covered at each webinar. For this special series, we ask that registrants be present to participate. A recording of these sessions WILL NOT be shared with registrants nor the public after the session is held.

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Robert Simon: Repainting the Masters for Fun and Profit (Member’s Event: $50+)

Presented in partnership with the Salmagundi Club and for Village Preservation members at the $50 level and above.

Enjoy this special opportunity to go inside the beautiful Salmagundi Club and learn about the controversial history of altering and censoring well-known artworks.

Daniele da Volterra’s cover-up of the nudity in Michelangelo’s Last Judgment may be the most famous alteration of a work of art. But through the centuries, paintings have been revised, repainted, cut up and cut down for reasons of religious sensitivity, prudery, and blatant commercialism. This illustrated talk will explore some of the most outrageous examples of the extreme makeovers that have altered works of art, both well-known and obscure.

About the Speaker:
Robert B. Simon is an art historian and art dealer in New York, specializing in Renaissance and Baroque paintings. He received his doctorate from Columbia University and has published and lectured widely on both art-historical matters and on broader concerns relating to the authenticity, valuation, conservation, and commercial trade of works of art. He is the co-author of Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi & The Collecting of Leonardo in the Stuart Courts, recently published by Oxford University Press.

Accessibility Note: This event is not fully accessible. There are 10 steps up to the front door.

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Black History in Greenwich Village: Session 2 — Arts, Culture, and Activism of Black Communities

Join Village Preservation for the return of our popular Black History in Greenwich Village Series. First developed as a part of our renowned, first-of-its-kind children’s education programs, it was so popular that we have now developed an adult version of this program to share with our entire community. Now updated with new and additional content we welcome the general public, teachers, students, and everyone interested to join us for this exciting four-part series.

Session 2 of this Village Preservation series will explore the political, social, and economic forces that enabled and ended the institution of slavery in New York City between 1790 and 1827 (the emancipation year for New York State).

The civil rights movement began on plantations, has been fought since before the Civil War, and did not end when slavery was abolished.

We’ll reflect on questions like “what is an artist?” and “what is an activist?” through the lens of the experience of Africans and Black Americans in Greenwich Village, New York City, and America. Art and activism are often intertwined and this is especially so in Greenwich Village. We’ll learn about the African Grove Theatre, a Black-owned and -operated theater on the corner of Bleecker and Mercer Streets that presented productions with a Black cast. Co-founded by James Hewlett, who was also a principal actor, this theater and company was not the first attempt to create a Black theater within New York City at this time. However, based in Greenwich Village, Grove is remembered as the most financially successful.

Art often has subcurrents of dissent and reflect current political movements. This session will tie together these historic fights for human rights and justice with the artistic practices of Africans and Black Americans in Greenwich Village and beyond.

Each of these free sessions will be held via zoom and requires pre-registration. Check out the individual sessions for additional details about the content covered at each webinar. For this special series, we ask that registrants be present to participate. A recording of these sessions WILL NOT be shared with registrants nor the public after the session is held.

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The New Brownies’ Book: A Love Letter to
Black Families

In the 1920s scholar, author, and activist W. E. B. Du Bois started a magazine for children. Calling it The Brownies’ Book: A Monthly Magazine for Children of the Sun, it was the first magazine aimed specifically at Black youth. It was published right here in our neighborhood at 70 Fifth Avenue. In his role as editor‐in‐chief, Du Bois reached out to the era’s most celebrated Black creatives — writers, artists, poets, songwriters — and asked them to contribute their “best work” to The Brownies’ Book “so that Black children will know that they are thought about and LOVED.” Among its contributors was Langston Hughes, whose first published poems appeared in The Brownies’ Book.

Nearly 100 years later, author, educator, and Du Bois scholar Dr. Karida L. Brown and award‐winning artist and children’s book creator Charly Palmer revived and expanded upon The Brownies’ Book legacy and showcased new art and writing for children from today’s brilliant Black creators. Join us for a presentation as they discuss their new book packed with 60 all‐new stories, poems, songs, photos, illustrations, comics, short plays, games, essays, and more, designed to reflect, celebrate, and inspire a new generation of children and families.

About the authors
Dr. Karida L. Brown is a professor, oral historian, and writer whose research centers on the race, historical transformations, and the fullness of Black life. An educator, public speaker, author, and humanist, she is known for empowering her readership, students, and organizations to be active participants in driving equity and justice. Dr. Brown previously served as the Diane Nash Descendants of Emancipation Chair at Fisk University’s John Lewis Center for Social Justice, and the inaugural Director of Racial Equity & Action for the Los Angeles Lakers. She is currently a professor of sociology at Emory University.

Charly Palmer is an award‐winning fine artist and illustrator. His artwork bears witness to African ancestry and contemporary experiences, from his paintings to his illustrated children’s books, which include The Teachers March!: How Selma’s Teachers Changed History, The Legend of Gravity, and Keep Your Head Up. Palmer’s paintings can be found in major museums, sports stadiums, and private personal and corporate collections. He has also created art for the cover of the John Legend’s Grammy Award–winning album, Bigger Love, and for the cover of Time. 

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Artists’ Homes & Haunts South of Union Square

There is an incredible array of sites in the area South of Union Square, where Greenwich Village meets the East Village, that are connected to the great artists and art movements of the last century and a half. Jackson Pollock and Isamu Noguchi got their start here. The New York School of artists, who shifted the center of the art world from Paris to New York, flourished here in the mid-20th century.

This program will take you on a virtual tour to some of the historic buildings where renowned artists lived and worked in Greenwich Village and the East Village throughout the 20th century. From the comfort of your own home on a cold February evening, visit places like the Hotel Albert, a haven for artists, writers, and musicians, now converted to apartments; sites along Broadway, including the landmarked 827-831 Broadway buildings, where abstract expressionist painters kept their studios; and row houses of East 9th and 10th Streets, some of which are now lost, where Chaim Gross, Franz Kline, Milton Resnick, Selma Hortense Burke, and so many others lived, worked, and created.

These buildings, where countless artists left their indelible marks on the global art scene, are also architecturally significant in their own right. You’ll get to hear about Village Preservation’s campaign to achieve landmark protections for the buildings that illustrate these important layers of history, some of which are at imminent risk of demolition.

About the Speaker:
Dena Tasse-Winter is a historic preservationist, writer, and Village Preservation’s own Director of Research and Preservation. A native New Yorker and Greenwich Village resident, she holds an MA in Historic Preservation and Cultural Heritage Management from the University of York, U.K., and a BA in Music History from the University of Rochester. In 2022, she co-edited the volume Experiencing Olmsted: The Enduring Legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted’s North American Landscapes.