OOOUUUUUTTTSSSIIIIIDDDE (Artist2Artist intro voice)! After the ASNEAA Community Legacy Project (CLP) x Hip-Hop Celebration Day; Harlem felt like the perfect destination post taking time to PAUSE on what exactly is ASNEAA celebrating this programming year (concurrent with America 250th Anniversary). It’s no secret, I think Harlem is NYC’s Black Mecca (honorable mention to Brooklyn’s Brownsville and Bed-Stuy). When I first attended Harlem Week in 2021, I knew one day I would be back with ASNEAA. And with the new multidimensional (online + in-person) praxis, Harlem Week was an ideal market for the business of social justice.
Similar to CLP x IAAF, CLP x Harlem Week 2026 was two days @ Saturday’s “Summer In The City” and Sunday’s “Harlem Day”. With last year’s symbolic victory at CLP x Morningside Park and my current read, I knew Harlem Week would feel like home for the ASNEAA mission. Located on the same block as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture | The New York Public Library, it was magic when I met Arturo Schomburg’s grandson! Especially since having recently visited the eponymous exhibit at the library. That’s just the type of place Harlem is. And why after the Dipset / L.O.X. Verzuz, I went straight to the neighborhood to remember (I digress…)
Like Malcolm X, my return to Harlem with ASNEAA was a new experience- given my coming of age days running around the city, doing young adult things! And while ASNEAA is not a Black nationalist organization or radical by the standards of the folks organizing in Harlem in the 1960’s, the organization is zero tolerance on racism and human rights violations. This is true even when anti-racism is considered passé – hence the current sociopolitical climate.
It’s also why in spite of partisan politics around the nation’s semiquincentennial, ASNEAA also celebrates the America 250th Annivesary with four CLP pop-up activations to date @ Fort Greene Park (FGP), Commodore Barry Park (CBP), Brooklyn Museum First Saturdays, and Brooklyn Bridge Park (BBP). Because the nuance of the ancestors’ narratives during the American Revolution is similar to the burning house Dr. King noted in the struggles for integration and civil rights. After The Road to Reparations panel (@ the Schomburg, duh), I stated the reality is like Blackness, money is not a monolith.
Still buzzing from the energy of Hip-Hop Celebration Day, the goal for CLP x Harlem Week 2026 was to maximize the number of participants with introductions to the ASNEAA research centering Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) narratives. At one point, I dubbed it Schomburg for the streets. And of course, Harlem did just that! Both days presented record CLP x Harlem Week 2026 participants for BIPOC heritage exploration and arts as advocacy creative expression projects:
Day One: Legacy Bracelets
Day Two: Social Justice Paintings / Color Sheets
By Day 2, I had to make sure it was the ASNEAA BIPOC heritage research (and not solely the treat bags) that was engaging participants. s/o to the CLP x Harlem Week 2026 participants that also shared BIPOC heritage geotags added to the website (Algeria and Ecuador is on the map!) And sure enough, without candy (mints don’t count) Harlem supported ASNEAA with both TIME and MONEY.
Because as Hip-Hop Celebration Day reminded us, capitalism is real and so is the hustle! Of course, with all this BIPOC joy came looming clouds and threats of rain by Sunday. BUT WE MADE IT and I am truly overwhelmed by the power of the PEOPLE of ALL AGES and BACKGROUNDS for checking in with ASNEAA – deep gratitude! Honoring Our Legacy at CLP x Harlem Week 2026- check. That’s Brooklyn, Bronx, and now Manhattan. Queens and Staten Island, what’s up?
Thank you to the CLP x Harlem Week 2026 host, participants, and donors:
