NYPL/Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem Needs your Support!

[WASHINGTON DC JAZZ NETWORK]

Dear Friends and Fans,

Click on this link to read the disturbing article from the NY Amsterdam News regarding the ongoing existence of the NYPL/Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. http://politesociety.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/save-the-schomburg/ Then return to this Email for the following suggestions for proactive involvement.

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

There are things for people to proactively do in insuring the Schomburg's continuing iconic existence as a component of the New York Public Library System. Become a member, donor, supporter and recommend other people to support and attend exhibitions/performances at the Schomburg. Go online to:

http://www.nypl.org/support/membership/schomburg-society

Please distribute this information to your friends and contacts.

WE ALL MUST WORK CONTINUOUSLY TO SAVE OUR AFRICAN AMERICAN LEGACY AND INSTITUTIONS!

WORKING TOGETHER WORKS!

Sincerely,

Dr. Larry Ridley

Jazz Artist

Professor of Music, Emeritus- Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey;

Professor of Jazz Bass- Manhattan School of Music;

Jazz Artist in Residence- Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture,

New York Public Library;

Executive Director- the African American Jazz Caucus, Inc., (AAJC);

President and Artistic Director- Jazz Legacy Inc.;

Co-Director, NorthCarolinaCentralUniversity/AAJC Jazz Research Institute (NAJRI);

Member, Local 802, American Federation of Musicians;

Contributing Editor - JazzEd Magazine;

Email: [e-mail];

Web sites:

www.larryridley.com;

www.AAJC.us;

http://juneteenthjazz.com;

www.JazzIndiana.net;

www.NAJRI.org

Washington DC Jazz Network

3 Stuyvesant Oval, Suite 9B, New York, NY 10009

[phone] Fax: [phone] Cell: [phone]

I just wanted to share an update re: the Schomburg written by Howard
Dodson and posted on the NYPL web site:
http://www.nypl.org/sites/default/files/schomburg_safe_in_harlem.pdf

The Schomburg and its Collections are Safe and Secure in Harlem:
A Message from Howard Dodson
July 15, 2010

The recent announcement of my plan to retire in February 2011 has
sparked a variety of reactions. Numerous individuals have written,
called or spoken to me in person telling me that I simply cannot
retire. The principle reason they give is that my leaving will result
in the demise of the Center. While I appreciate these acknowledgments
of my role in the development of the Center over the last 25 years, I
have not done it alone. And while many say they won't be able to find
someone like me as a successor, I'm not convinced that someone exactly
like me is what the Center needs.

My successor will have to have an uncompromising commitment to
preserving the legacies of our ancestors that are documented in the
Center's collections and those that still need to be documented,
preserved, interpreted and celebrated. But he or she will also need to
be someone who is ready to grab a hold of the new technologies that
are emerging everyday and use them to extend access to our rich and
varied heritage nationally and globally. He or she will need to be
entrepreneurial enough to find or make the money needed to support
such effort. And he or she will need to be capable of establishing,
maintaining and exploiting (in the best sense of the term)
relationships with a vast array of economic, political, civic and
social leaders (locally as well as nationally and internationally) and
ordinary black people (if there is such a thing) domestically as well
as internationally Most importantly, the Schomburg has always been and
must continue to be a forum for the free and unfettered exchange of
ideas, a cardinal principle that my successor must be dedicated to
defending.. Such persons do exist. And a person will be found. A
competent, committed, truth-seeking director of the Schomburg Center
can and will be found to succeed me. The search for the next director
is being led capably by Library trustees Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and
Gordon Davis. The Center will not die so long as black people are
committed to keeping it alive, growing and serving. Ultimately, the
future of the Schomburg Center is (as it has always been) in our
collective hands, not just mine or my successor's.

What has moved me the most about the flurry of emails, blogs, and news
stories that have appeared in print and electronic media has been the
deep, passionate concerns that so many have expressed about the future
of the Schomburg Center. This has, indeed, been heartening because it
is clear evidence that so many of you care deeply about the Center's
future and are prepared to support, defend and protect it. What has
troubled me is that unfortunately, some of the concerns that motivated
these expressions of commitment are simply not true, not based on
fact. The most disturbing of the false rumors that are circulating and
creating so much anxiety is the notion that The New York Public
Library is planning to break up the Schomburg Center's collection and
disburse them throughout its branch libraries. No proposal to do such
a mindless and egregious thing has ever been proposed during my
25-plus year history here that I am aware of. A series of consulting
firms working for the Library did recommend strategies for
consolidating the research library operations that included
centralizing research library functions and collections in the 42nd
Street Building.

The New York Public Library is on record as saying that the Schomburg
Center's collections will remain intact and its programs and services
will be housed in its Harlem headquarters at 135th Street and Malcolm
X Boulevard. The President of the Library, Dr. Paul LeClerc, and
several board members have assured me that the Schomburg Center will
continue to thrive in its current location. Gordon Davis and Henry
Louis Gates, Jr., took the lead on the Board of Trustees in assuring
that neither the Center nor its collections would be moved from
Harlem. Both of them have been incredibly responsive to my requests
for help with fundraising and other support. Councilwoman Inez Dickens
and Congressman Charles Rangel have also been actively involved with
the Library in assuring that neither the Center's programs nor its
collections would be moved from its Harlem-based headquarters. Thanks
to Councilwoman Dickens and the New York City Council, the Schomburg
Center is in the midst of planning the second phase of its major
renovation project. Ms. Dickens and the Council have committed $10
million toward renovating the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books
Division, upgrading the Art and Artifacts and Moving Image and
Recorded Sound Divisions, renovating the Langston Hughes Auditorium,
replacing the roof on the Landmark Building, upgrading the HVAC and
Fire Alarm Systems and redoing the streetscape in front of the complex
along Malcolm X Boulevard and 135th Street. With full funding from Ms.
Dickens and the Council in hand, architects have been hired and
preliminary architectural plans are being reviewed.

The Schomburg Center is being readied for decades more service from
its Harlem-based location. In late 2008, I asked Dr. Gates and Dr.
Johnnetta Cole to chair a committee of leaders in the arts, culture,
and academic fields, to assist the Schomburg in developing a strategic
vision for a renewed Schomburg Center for the 21st Century. The report
of that work is now available on the Center’s website
(www.schomburgcenter.org). In it, you will find a vision for a bright
future for the Center, both in terms of the incredible significance of
its work and its ongoing leadership role in communities local,
national, and worldwide.

I urge you to read the materials that are on the Center’s website. I
encourage you to visit the Schomburg in person and online. And I also
encourage you to attend the Library’s “What’s Up @ the Schomburg: A
Community Conversation," a forum that will be held in the Langston
Hughes Auditorium on Thursday, July 29, 2010 from 5:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Thank you for your passion and for your continued support of the Schomburg.

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