Angela Bassett, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Among Honorees at Schomburg Center Gala

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, one of the oldest and largest libraries dedicated to the access of Black history, will celebrate its 100th anniversary on April 30, 2026, with a major centennial gala.

Guests, celebrities, and supporters of the Schomburg Center and The New York Public Library will gather at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue. For tickets to the gala, please visit here.

The evening’s honorees are actress and producer Angela Bassett, novelist and short-story writer Edwidge Danticat, historian and professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, and multidisciplinary artist, composer, and curator Solange Knowles. Inspired by the Schomburg Center collections, the gala’s dinner menu will feature a two-course meal curated by award-winning Chef Gregory Gourdet.

Honorary Co-Chairs for the evening include Anna Bousdoukou and Andreas Dracopoulos, Sherry B. Bronfman, Dr. Carla Hayden, Delroy Lindo, Audra McDonald, and Aysha E. Schomburg.

The Gala Committee includes Charles M. Blow, Colman Domingo, Ava DuVernay, Annette Gordon-Reed, Bill T. Jones, Tayari Jones, Jamaica Kincaid, Carol Sutton Lewis, Julie Mehretu, Lynn Nottage, Suzan-Lori Parks, Imani Perry, Victoria Rogers, Dean Warren Schomburg, Bevy Smith, Zadie Smith, Darren Walker and Colson Whitehead.

In 1925, The New York Public Library’s Department of Negro Literature, History, and Prints—the forerunner to today’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture— opened its doors during the height of the Harlem Renaissance. A year later, the personal collection of Puerto Rican bibliophile Arturo Schomburg fortified the collection.