A new webinar will explore the little known history of New York City’s first free Black community.
LMHQ, the Alliance for Downtown New York, and Black Gotham Experience are teaming up to host the Other Side of Wall Street, a virtual event that will give attendees a little known New York City history lesson about the Land of the Blacks. The event will take place at 12 p.m. on Sept. 9 and is free to the public.
The Other Side of Wall Street lesson begins in 1643 with the beginning of a small town known as Land of the Blacks, which formed in the Dutch colony of New Netherland. By 1655, the Land of the Blacks was over twice the size of modern-day SoHo and it continued to exist after the English took the island from the Dutch, making it the first free Black community in New York. The webinar will also explore how the community started and how it continued to exist into the 18th century.
The webinar will be led by artist/historian Kamau Ware, who founded Black Gotham Experience in 2010.
This event is the first of a series of collaborative events hosted by the Alliance for Downtown New York and LMHQ.
To register, visit lmhq.nyc. For more information, visit blackgotham.com.
