In honor of Poster House’s exhibition Act Black: Posters from Black American Stage & Screen, members are invited to a guided tour of Central Park’s Seneca Village. Before Central Park was built, the area along its perimeter from West 82nd to West 89th Streets was home to Seneca Village, the largest community of African American property owners in New York. Founded in 1825, it was relatively prosperous, with churches, a school, and high rates of property ownership, which, in some cases, made male landowners eligible to vote. The city acquired the land for Central Park in 1853 and its residents were required to leave by the end of 1857. Scholars and archaeologists began to investigate the site more systematically and raise public awareness of it during the 1990s. Members will meet at the Mariner’s Gate entrance to Central Park on West 85th Street and Central Park West at 11:45am and walk over to Seneca Village for the tour, led by a Central Park Conservancy guide. Accessibility Note: As this is an off-site event, masks and clear masks are available free of charge with prior notification. ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or a CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) is also available upon advanced request. Please contact access@posterhouse.org or (914) 295-2387 to request interpretation services and to address any other accessibility needs. For other event-related questions, please contact info@posterhouse.org.
