Schomburg Centennial Festival 2026

Join us for a celebration of the African Diaspora through the power of literature, literacy, and community!
About this Event

Photo: 2019 Schomburg Center Literary Festival, author book signing; Isseu Diouf/Schomburg Center

IN-PERSON

Join us at our Schomburg Centennial Festival for a celebration of the African Diaspora through the power of literature, literacy, and community!​​ We convene communities of book lovers to interact with their favorite authors and comic book creators on 135th Street between Malcolm X and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevards in Harlem, New York.

The Schomburg Centennial Festival will take place rain or shine on Saturday, June 13, starting at 11 AM.

The day begins with an opening cultural grounding and a keynote conversation. We continue with book talks and workshops, and more. A fan favorite from our Black Comic Book Festival, the Cosplay Showcase brings characters to life!

All day you can take part in readings, panel discussions, workshops, photo activations, bookish marketplace, mobile library, and more. We will close the day with musical performances and an old-school block party. Last year we celebrated with DJ D-Nice, Slick Rick and The Soapbox Presents. Stay tuned for our 2026 musical performance announcement!

LOCATION

The festival will take place in Schomburg’s landmark building at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard, as well as outdoors on 135th Street between Malcolm X and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevards.

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Schedule and participants are subject to change.

SATURDAY - OPENING PROGRAMS

11:00 AM | Performance and Welcome

Langston Hughes Auditorium | Schomburg Center (INDOOR)

11:30 AM KEYNOTE CONVERSATION

11:00 AM | Woke Baby! Festival

Kids Clubhouse | 135TH STREET (OUTDOOR)

Children’s Author Readings, Live Music, art making, and more Powered by Woke Baby!

LANGSTON HUGHES AUDITORIUM (INDOOR- Schomburg Center)

11:45 - 12:45 PM | OPENING KEYNOTE CONVERSATION

1PM (45 mins)

The History and Future of Afro-Indigenous Solidarity

Kyle Mays When We Are Kin: The History and Future of Afro-Indigenous Solidarity

Moderator: Cori Murray, EVP Editorial, EBONY

2PM (45 mins)

Mothers, Daughters, Sisters

Sasha Bonet The Waterbearers

3PM (45 mins)

Personal Storytelling Before and After the White House

Karine Jean-Pierre, Political Advisor and 35th White House press secretary

Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines

Moving Forward: A Story of Hope, Hard Work, and the Promise of America

Moderator: Danielle Belton, award-winning Editor and Journalist

4PM (45 mins)

SPOTLIGHT: Toni Cade Bambara | Film Screening & Talkback

An intergenerational glance at Bambara’s legacy, capturing the afterlife of the writer’s influence on Black feminist literature and experimental visual culture then and now.

TCB: The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing (2025, 105 minutes)

A biography of the influential writer, filmmaker and cultural worker, who with humor and deep insight, inspired a generation of artists to dedicate themselves to community empowerment. The film is structured as a series of lessons on cultural organizing, gleaned from Bambara's life and shared by her friends, colleagues and students.

The film will be followed by talkback with filmmaker Louis Massiah who will be joined by poets and artists Nikky Finney, and sadé powell, moderated by feminist writer and scholar, Naomi Extra.

All book signings from this stage will take place in the Langston Hughes Lobby following each conversation.

AARON DOUGLAS READING ROOM (INDOOR- Schomburg Center)

12:30 PM (45 mins)
PAPERBACK BOOK LAUNCH

Raquel Willis The Risk it Takes to Bloom

Moderator: C. Riley Snorton

2PM (45 mins)

DEBUT NOVEL

Rob Franklin Great Black Hope

Moderator: Emil Wilbekin, Founder, Native Son

3PM (45 mins)

REIMAGINING SINGLE MOTHERHOOD

Jamilah Lemieux Black. Single. Mother.

All book signings from this stage will take place in the Langston Hughes Lobby following each conversation.

AMERICAN NEGRO THEATER (INDOOR- Schomburg Center)

11:45 - 1:45 PM (120 mins)
WORKSHOP: INTRO TO PERSONAL STORYTELLING

Presented by The Moth

As a participant in a Moth workshop, you can shape a life experience of your choosing into a well-crafted story! You will be guided by experienced Moth instructors who will help you recognize the elements of a compelling story, explore a true personal story, and connect more deeply with others in the room.

Register . Walk-ins welcome!

2PM (90 mins)

HOW TO DRAW BLACK COMIC BOOKS

Tim Fielder is an Illustrator, concept designer, cartoonist, and animator born in Tupelo, Mississippi. Tim has worked over the years in the storyboarding, film visual development, gaming, comics, and animation industries for clients as varied as Marvel Comics (‘Dr Dre: Man With A Cold Cold Heart’), The Village Voice, Tri-Star Pictures (‘The Mothership Connection’), to Ubisoft Entertainment (‘Batman: Vengeance).

JAMES BALDWIN STAGE (OUTDOOR - 135th Street)

1PM (45 mins)

WORLD CUP AND HISTORICAL FICTION

Dimitry Leger Death of the Soccer God

Moderator: Leslie-Ann Murray, Brown Girl Book Lover

2PM (45 mins)

HARLEM, ALWAYS ON OUR MIND

FICTION

ReShonda Tate With Love From Harlem

a new novel inspired by beloved Harlem jazz performer Hazel Scott and the equal parts exhilarating and tumultuous relationship that changed the course of her life.

Moderator: Lana Turner, Harlem Literary Society

3PM (45 mins)

BLACK LOVE IS BLACK WEALTH

FICTION

Walter Mosley Ghalen: A Romance in Black

4PM (45 mins)

LOVE AND BELONGING IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH

FICTION

Carrie R. Moore Make Your Way Home: Stories

A debut collection of stories set across the American South, featuring characters who struggle to find love and belonging in the wake of painful histories. How can you love where you come from, even when home doesn’t love you back?

All book signings from this stage will take place in the Mini pop-up shop following each conversation.

ZORA NEALE HURSTON STAGE (OUTDOOR - 135th Street)

12:00PM (30 mins)

IN CONVERSATION: RACHEL ELIZA GRIFFITH

Rachel Eliza Griffith The Flower Bearers

In The Flower Bearers, Griffiths inscribes the trajectories of two transformational relationships with grace and honesty, chronicling the beauty and pain that comes with opening oneself fully to love.

1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

POETRY FOR OUR TIME

All book signings from this stage will take place in the outdoor Schomburg Shop following each conversation.

OCTAVIA E. BUTLER STAGE (OUTDOOR - 135th Street)

1PM (45 mins)

SCI-FI MYSTERY

Andrea HairstonThe Redemption Center is Closed on Sundays

An extra-dimensional M**der mystery with conundrums, alien tricksters, and a dog detective who just doesn’t know the meaning of “stay”.

2PM (45 mins)

ROOTED: BLACK IMAGINATION, REGIONAL VOICES AND THE BLACK SPECULATIVE TRADITION

Where you are from shapes what you imagine. The South, the Midwest, the West Coast, the Tri-state — each region carries its own memory, mythology, and survival language. Black speculative storytelling has always been rooted in place, drawing from the rich and unique textures of community, migration, and resistance that define each geography. From the Great Migration to the digital archive, from the blues back to the block, these are the stories that could only come from where they came from.

Ytasha L. Womack, Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture

Shyheim Williams, Humanities PhD Candidate (CAU) and Digital Humanities Program Manager at Clark Atlanta University Art Museum

Moderators: Erika Hardison and Isis Asare

All book signings from this stage will take place in the Mini pop-up shop following each conversation.

3:00 PM - 4:00 PM

COSPLAY SHOWCASE

A fan favorite from our Black Comic Book Festival, the Cosplay Showcase brings characters to life! Join the fun on the outdoor 135th Street stage or enjoy the show from the crowd.

​

5:00 PM

THE BLOCK PARTY

Come for the books, stay for the old-school community block party blending the best of classic hip-hop, R&B, and house music with legendary MC Rakim, Harlem’s own Sundae Sermon conductor, DJ Stormin' Norman, and more!

KIDS CLUBHOUSE

11:00 AM -1:00 PM | Woke Baby! Festival Presented by Mahogany L. Browne

A family-friendly celebration of justice-oriented children’s books, featuring storytelling, baby yoga, music, an art table, back-to-back book readings and signings.

Guest readers and authors: Mahogany L. Browne, Winsome Bingham, Traci N. Todd, Joel Léon, B. Sharise Moore, Fred T. Joseph, Ayana Walker, Jive Poetic, Baby Yoga Breaks with BKWellness

1:30 PM - 5 PM | Roots of Reading Storytime Hosted by Malika Lee Whitney

1:30 PM

Nadia Fisher At the Cookout; Daddy Dressed Me

R.J. Owens Walk the Walk
2:00 PM

Storytime & Braid Parade

Jaylene Clark Owens A Black Girl and Her Braids
2:45 PM

Marcia Withers & Kori Withers Grandma's Hands

Children’s book based on Bill Withers’ timeless, universal song “Grandma’s Hands”. A heartwarming tribute to the enduring bond between grandmothers and their grandchildren.

3:15 PM

Candice Iloh Emeka, Eat Egusi!

Harold Green III Hugged by the Night

4:15 PM | OPEN CRAFTS

Coloring, crafting, bookmark making, and stickers galore!

(Self-Guided - bring your grown-up!)

All book signings from this stage will take place in the Mini pop-up shop following each conversation.

MARKET PLACE - 135TH STREET

The Marketplace located on 135th Street between Malcolm X Blvd. and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd. is a great place to support local authors and the Schomburg Pop-Up Shop including:

Comic Book Row

Calling All BLERDS! Swing by Comic Book Row and grab all your favorite comics, anime, and sci-fi reads.

NYPL Mobile Library

Mobile library, library card sign up, story time, and book giveaways!

Vendors

GET CENTENNIAL UPDATES

NOTICES

AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING Programs are photographed and recorded by the Schomburg Center. Attending this event indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any all purposes of the New York Public Library.

PRESS Please send all press inquiries (photo, video, interviews, audio-recording, etc) at least 24-hours before the day of the program to Leah Drayton at [email protected].

Please note that professional video recordings are prohibited without expressed consent.

E-TRANSPORTATION NYPL policy prohibits electric transportation devices (e.g., motorbikes, e-bikes, e-scooters, e-skateboards) from being brought into or stored at library sites for any length of time, as this is the best way to keep our spaces & people safe.

ACCESSIBLILITY Accessibility requests can be made by e-mail [email protected].

Leadership support for the Schomburg Center's Centennial is provided by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) and Andreas C. Dracopoulos.

Additional support is provided by Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Ford Foundation.

The 2026 Schomburg Center Centennial Festival is powered by Puma.