Langston Hughes Community Library & Cultural Center

Description

Langston Hughes Community Library & Cultural Center
CONTACT: LINDA BANNERMAN-MARTIN, MLS Curator/ Sr. Librarian
ORGANIZATION PROFILE:
The BLACK HERITAGE REFERENCE CENTER serves Queens County with a comprehensive reference and circulating collection, totaling approximately 30,000 volumes of materials written about and related to Black culture. Emphasis is given to those geographic areas where African-Americans have lived in significant numbers, including West Africa, South America, the Caribbean, Canada and the United States. The Black Heritage Reference Center of Queens County includes books, periodicals, theses and dissertations, VHS videos, cassettes and CDS, photographs, posters, prints, paintings, and sculpture. The curator is responsible for the coordination, supervision, and care of the special collection for its continued development and on-going maintenance.
Cultural arts programs are scheduled through the Black Heritage Reference Center. Meeting space is available to community organizations by application. Special features of the Black Heritage Center include:
The SCHOMBURG CLIPPING FILE–an extensive microfich collection of periodicals, magazine clippings, typescripts, broadsides, pamphlets, programs, book reviews, menus and ephemera of all kinds.
The UMI Thesis and Dissertation Collection–consists of more than 1,000 volumes of doctoral and master dissertations concerning Africans and African-Americans in the Diaspora. The focus of the collection is on criticisms of Black writers, with special emphasis on the works of writer and poet LANGSTON HUGHES.
The ADELE COHEN MUSIC COLLECTION–contains most of America’s foremost Black publications on microfilm. The papers cover 15 states beginning in 1893, and are updated each year with current issues.
The BLACK HERITAGE VIDEO COLLECTION–documents the history and culture of Africans and African-Americans on tape, and in all subject areas including literature, biography, social science, fine arts; and titles such as “Sankofa,” and the “Million Man March.”
Through the Black Heritage Reference Center literature readings, workshops and lectures are scheduled, as well as cultural arts programming in fine art exhibitions, film festivals, dance, musical, and dramatic presentations/ performances. Web site: http://www.queenslibrary.org/index.aspx?section_id=12&page_id=44&branch_id=LH