The board and staff of Weeksville Heritage Center (WHC) are thrilled to announce the 2023 Spring Benefit: An Evening for Weeksville on Thursday, April 20, 2023. The Spring Benefit will provide a new source of support for the organization, and funds raised will be invested into our mission to serve our community.
The holiday season is here and that means it’s time to celebrate Kwanzaa! Visit us at Weeksville Heritage Center on December 16-17, 2022 for this two-day celebration in collaboration with Asase Yaa. This year’s theme is “Celebrate in Principle.” We will share some of the African American artistic traditions that were prevalent during the time Kwanzaa was created. The weekend celebration will highlight all of the cultural values that exemplify the rich principles/Nguzo Saba of African American culture.
What does Hip Hop mean to you? We want to hear your stories! Join us on Tuesdays, November 15, 22, & 29 at 4:30 pm for Hip Hop Oral History Recording Sessions.
Share your personal memories and experiences with hip hop for Weeksville’s archives.
Join in the beginning of NYC's Parable Path, a set of local events, talks and rituals centered in collaborative living that draw inspiration from the classic sci-fi novel by the late MacArthur Fellow and Hugo Award-winner Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower. Led by singer/songwriter Toshi Reagon, whose opera of the same name will premiere in New York in 2023, tonight’s event features a community choir that will direct the audience through an open and engaging evening of song, dance, and deep conversation. Come be a part of this harmonious and challenging exploration of sustainable routes onto the righteous path in an ever-changing world.
Weeksville Green returns this summer, with our annual Farmers & Community Market held Saturdays from 12PM–4PM. This year, as a part of NYC DOT's Open Street initiative, the market will be held directly outside WHC on Buffalo Ave, between St. Marks Ave and Bergen St. Weeksville Green programming will continue to focus on Black foodways, urban growing, diasporic memory and community built through food at every stage––from farming to ingredients as well as cooking and mealtime.
Explore Weeksville and Black New York! Join us for one of three free tours of the historic Hunterfly Road houses and immerse yourself in Weeksville’s radical history of freedom, autonomy, and preservation. Relax on our beautiful campus and grab a free book from House of Speakeasy to learn more about the little known but incredibly rich history of central Brooklyn and greater Black Gotham. Following the country’s first national celebrations of Juneteenth and Independence Day, we’re uplifting the ways New York’s Black population has continuously defined freedom on their own terms.
Held on the date of NYC Pride, Groove on the Green centers queer, transgender, and gender non-conforming farmers, urban gardeners, and land stewards – especially those who are Black, Indigenous, and Brown. An alternative to corporatized Pride events, we will uplift the ways that Black LGBTQIA2S+ liberation is tied to the land preservation, protection, & cultivation, as well as center the people who are engaged in that work.
Weeksville Heritage Center partners with New York Live Arts to present an in-process look at NYLA Live Feed residency artist Ni’Ja Whitson’s newest exploration: Dark Dive. A part of the Unarrival Experiments, Dark Dive is a portal into the liberatory dark of Black imagination, spiritual possibility, and Black Trans and Queer magic. It is a conjuring of the past and the future.
Held for the Black trans, gender non-conforming (GNC), and intersex community, this Summer Solstice, Ni’Ja (Sage) Whitson invites local Black trans, GNC, and intersex folks to gather for the Illumination Catalogue’s first in-person Black Trans Story Circle love pour at Weeksville Heritage Center.
Looking for a Juneteenth Food Festival Afterparty? We've got you covered. Join us at Nowadays for Mister Sunday with Dex and Mark Flash of Underground Resistance plus Nowadays resident SHYBOI DJing all day.Underground Resistance and Weeksville Heritage Center come together to commemorate Juneteenth with an event that brings forward legacies of autonomous Black community building while celebrating in the present with a set on Nowadays’ outdoor dance floor.
This event will take place at Nowadays in Ridgewood.
Join us as we team up with Jummy's Picks by Black-Owned Brooklyn at our ALL-BLACK Juneteenth Food Festival! Over 20 top-tier Black food vendors will be on deck with delicious fare spanning the Diaspora, including regions of the United States, Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America. There will also be merch available from local Black-owned businesses whose focus is celebrating Black culture, pride, and liberation.
Dutch settlers brought the observation of Pinkster to New York during their early 17th century colonization of the land and peoples. While enslaved Africans and African Americans had limited opportunities for respite, Pinkster became one of the few instances where they were able to openly rest and practice their varied cultures among themselves. We’re excited to partner with Chief Baba Neil Clarke to bring the festival of Pinkster to Weeksville, with opportunities to learn more about the history of Black foodways, folkways, and music histories.
To celebrate the completion of the human-sized nest created for the Black Exhale Nest, Antoinette Cooper and Debbie Baxter invite local community members and supporters to come together for an evening of healing. Shamanic drummer, Timmie Larode, will open the evening.
Something Like Freedom: Reading Group, is an intimate, virtual reading group where participants will build a personal and collective understanding of abolition & liberation. Participants will view and discuss short excerpts of critical texts – ranging across books, music, film and other media – selected by the facilitator(s). Though some materials may be provided in advance, this reading group does not require any prior preparation or background knowledge on any topics.
To celebrate the completion of the human-sized nest created for the Black Exhale Nest, Antoinette Cooper and Debbie Baxter invite local community members and supporters to come together for an evening of healing. Shamanic drummer, Timmie Larode, will open the evening.
Sound healers Elana Bell and Ben Brown will guide attendees through an immersive, restorative experience. Using voice, bowls and shruti, a soothing soundscape will be used to facilitate meditation and healing. Community members will have the opportunity to make contributions to the nest whether it be branches and other natural elements, personal items, or blessings.
Join us on May 18th from 7-8pm for AFROINDUSTRIALIZATION, a community presentation about the need for African American communities to be prepared to fully participate at an ownership and management level in the industries created by new technologies, ensuring that these industries don’t simply pass through or extract revenue FROM the African American community but rather live within and generate revenue FOR the African American community. This free event, presented by our May Space Grant recipient, will include raffle prizes, and tech demonstrations.
Join us on Saturday, May 14th for a Weeksville Weekend on Wellness. Spirits, Ancestors, Self: African Diasporic Healing & Wisdom Sharing is a calm, soothing environment where attendees will learn and apply tools to explore the connection between mind, body, and spirit on Weeksville’s sacred lands.
Performance artist Ayana Evans will hold an open studio for members of the public to talk about her practice; her current exhibition, C.R.E.A.M.: So let's start a gotdamn revolution, at Weeksville Heritage Center; and her broader approach to art-making and programming around social issues. Drop by any time between 5–8:30pm!
Join us on Tuesday, April 19th from 6–8:30pm for a free and informative LIVE STREAM cannabis summit presented in partnership with CHICKS + FLOWERS. Learn how to get your license and get your business off the ground!
Join us for C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me): A career fair for more than survival. This free event, which is a collaboration between Weeksville Heritage Center and Performance Artist Ayana Evans, brings together job seekers and employers who support a commitment to non-discriminatory hiring. This non-traditional fair will also include resumé writing workshops, panel discussions about arts careers, and stress-reduction tips as well as a live DJ and t-shirt giveaways.
BEYOND THE FLAT, a live, outdoor performance by Zachary Fabri, is based on a portrait by artist Samantha Box. This performance leans into the ambiguity around portraiture. Fabri's performance will consider the lifeforce of a portrait, the sitter, the viewer, and the context of creation.
$15 (a limited number free tickets are also available)
Almost two years after COVID-19 was first reported in NYC, what have we learned? How has it changed our communities? How do we prepare for the future?
Weeksville's President and CEO, Dr. Raymond Codrington, will lead us in a community conversation exploring the ways that this unprecedented global event has especially impacted the Black community and other POC.
The national theme for Black History Month 2022 is “Black Health and Wellness.”In celebration of Black History Month, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and Weeksville Heritage Center have partnered to recognize several individuals who are the embodiment of this year's theme. They, along with countless others, help us navigate the medical and mental health disparities challenging our communities. Join us for this virtual celebration as we spotlight these honorees who strive to make a difference in people's lives every day.
OUR APOLOGIES. ALL TOURS ON SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12TH ARE SOLD OUT.
Celebrate Black History Month on the grounds of the first and largest free Black community established in Brooklyn. FREE tours of the Historic Hunterfly Road Houses and open gallery hours on Saturday, February 12th. Tours at 12:00pm, 2:00pm, and 3:30pm.
Weeksville Heritage Center – in partnership with NYC Health & Hospitals Test + Trace Corps – is hosting a free pop-up vaccine clinic on Wednesday through Saturday for the weeks of January 12 – 15 and January 19 – 22.
Join us as we celebrate our culture through Kwanzaa, by focusing on one of the principles in a series of seven short videos. Each of the principles directly connect to historic Weeksville and those who make up our communities, past and present.
Consider your holiday shopping done with a visit to our Holiday Market with Black-Owned Brooklyn. From pots and plants to apparel and candles, there’s a gift for everyone on your list! Join us from 12-5pm each day for food, music, and live performances while you shop.
Join us on November 13 as we celebrate Children’s Book Week 2021 with a day full of activities including book readings by three notable children's authors and bookmaking, cartooning, and illustration workshops. Enter your name for a chance to win a variety of giveaways and prizes. Presented in partnership with the Center for Book Arts and House of SpeakEasy’s Artmobile.
Experience On the way, undone, from Igbo-Nigerian American artist, and performer Okwui Okpokwasili and director Peter Born. This in-situ work blends genres and media and features performers Mayfield Brooks, Anaïs Maviel, Okwui Okpokwasili, and Samita Sinha manifests a polyphonic chorus wearing sculptural headdresses that recall traditional West African hairstyles and explores a sonic entanglement that summons the past to envision the future.
Presented as part of Crossing the Line Festival, produced by the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF).
5:30P M: Underground Resistance & Friends: A Conversation
7:00 PM: Reception and Tour of Hunterfly Road Houses
8:00 PM: Underground Resistance Presents Nomadico live DJ Performance
Jane Lombard Fellow Underground Resistance and Nomadico participate in a conversation at Weeksville Heritage Center to contextualize the world-building and political project that is Underground Resistance, a techno music collective and label in Detroit.
