In 1926, educator and historian Dr. Carter G. Woodson founded Negro History Week to honor the cultural contributions of African-Americans. In 1976, it became officially known as Black History Month.
Every year, the month of February brings a profusion of art and history programs and exhibitions to the city, and this year is no exception.
The American Museum of Natural History (79th St & Cental Park West, [212] 769-5100) is paying tribute to James Baldwin, the activist and author whose work, such as “Notes of a Native Son,” and the meetings he organized between Robert Kennedy and black luminaries like Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne and Lorraine Hansberry, helped lay the groundwork for the civil rights movement.
Today’s events include “James Baldwin: A Soul on Fire,” a video of the acclaimed off-Broadway play (1 p.m.), followed by a discussion with Baldwin biographer David Leeming (2 p.m.).
Later this afternoon, Audelco Award winner Wendi Joy Franklin performs “A Song for You . . . The Civil Rights Journey of a Negro Woman: Lena Calhoun Horne” (4 p.m.).
At the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street, [212] 535-7710), Cicely Tyson narrates the audio tour for the exhibit “African-American Artists, 1929-1945,” featuring 70 works from the Depression through World War II.
“The exhibit covers a 16-year period where African-American artists felt recognized and accepted through the Works Progress Administration,” explains associate curator Lisa Messinger of the federal arts program that reached out to blacks, but ended in 1943.
Raymond Steth, Wilmer Jennings, Robert Blackburn and others are featured. Messinger will lecture on the artists tomorrow (3 p.m.).
Photographer Bruce Davidson documented many of the most important events in the Civil Rights movement, including the Birmingham riots and the historic march from Selma to Montgomery. His work is on display at the International Center for Photography (Sixth Avenue at 43rd Street, [212] 875-0000) in “Time of Change: Civil Rights Photographs, 1961-65.”
“African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, X,” at the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery (24 W. 57th St., [212] 247-0082), is the 10th installment of the gallery’s ground-breaking annual series highlighting works by Alma Thomas, Bill Traylor, Ellis Wilson and more.
Tami Gold, a documentary filmmaker, was a long-time friend of activist Clarence Finch. When he died, she discovered his autobiographical tape recordings which inspired “Another Brother,” which unspools tomorrow at the Brooklyn Museum of Art (2 p.m., 200 Eastern Pkwy., [718] 638-5000). The film portrays a generation of men who returned from Vietnam only to face the trials of racism, drugs and AIDS.