A Symposium Presented by:
The Harlem Place, Memory & Culture Incubator (PMCI)
September 17–19, 2026
Spitzer School of Architecture, CCNY
What is “the built archive”?
How are practitioners reimagining built environment and preservation practice through Afro-diasporic culture and memory?
Today, emerging landscapes of design and preservation are opening up new understandings of architecture and the built realm as archival practice.
Speakers and Participants
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Elisheba Wokoma
Co Founder, Wa Na Wari / Seattle Black Spatial Histories Institute
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Inye Wokoma
Co Founder, Wa Na Wari / Seattle Black Spatial Histories Institute
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Curry Hackett
Designer and Clinical Assistant Professor, Wayside Studio / NYU
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Marta Gutman
Dean, Spitzer School of Architecture and co-director, PMCI
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Jerome Haferd
Assistant Professor, Spitzer School of Architecture and co-director, PMCI
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Najha Zigbi Johnson
Writer and Cultural Curator, CCNY / PMCI (Former)
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Sade Lythcott
CEO, National Black Theatre
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Minkah Makalani
Associate Professor, African and African Diaspora Studies, UT Austin
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Valerie Jo Bradley
Co-founder and President, Save Harlem Now!
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Karen D Taylor
Founding Director, Public Historian, While We Are Still Here
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Mordecai Cargill
Co-Founder + Chief Creative Officer, ThirdSpace Action Lab + Chocolate Cities Cleveland (OH)
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Vanessa Morrison
Co-founder and CEO of Open Design Collective, Oklahoma Black Towns Project
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Steven Fullwood
Nomadic Archives, Archivist, Writer, and Cultural Documentarian
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Idris Brewster
Founder, Kinfolk Tech
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jah sayers
Post Doctorate Fellow, CUNY Graduate Center, PMCI
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Jervette Ward
Chair and Associate Professor, Black Studies CCNY
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Amber Wiley
Associate Professor, Director of the Institute for Quality Communities, University of Oklahoma
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Eric Riley
Planning Principal, Konkuey Design
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Germane Barnes
Founder, Studio Barnes, Director of the Community Housing Identity Lab (CHIL) University of Miami
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Melody Capote
Executive Director of Caribbean Culture Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI)
Detailed Program Coming soon
Digitization Day
September 18th
Spitzer School of Architecture
Digitize your own personal Archive! Join the Harlem Place Memory & Culture Archive (HPMCA) at The City College of New York, Spitzer School of Architecture for our Symposium Digitization Event.
Harlem Place, Memory & Culture Archive
The Harlem Place Memory & Culture Archive empowers Harlem’s intergenerational community and culture-makers to document, share, access, and connect over Harlem’s living cultural landscape. The Archive collects, organizes, and hosts digitized cultural assets of Harlem’s place-based histories, prioritizing the wide-ranging preservation work of Harlem’s Black, African, and Afro-Caribbean communities, and facilitates access through the Living Digital Archive website. The Archive aims to actively resist colonial archival gatekeeping practices and celebrate expressive culture, organizing, and community-building efforts that transform, reclaim, and preserve the built environment and heritage of Harlem.
The Harlem Place Memory & Culture Archive was initiated by the PMCI in collaboration with Caribbean Center Africa Diaspora Institute (CCCADI), Save Harlem Now!, The Harlem Cultural Archives, Uptown Grand Central, and an expanding ecosystem of Harlem community partners and archive projects. The Harlem PMCA is an independently stewarded archive.
PMCI Partners
Additional PMCI Partners
Panamanian-American artist
Architectural and cultural historian
Dancer and choreographer
Contact Us
Eager to explore a collaboration? Kindly share your details, and we will reach out to you promptly. We look forward to the opportunity to connect.