In Harlem, Mayor Unveils Park Spaces Renamed For Black Luminaries

HARLEM, NY — Two park spaces in Harlem were formally renamed for two of the neighborhood's most celebrated Black intellectuals this weekend, part of a citywide effort to honor the Black experience in New York.

Saturday's ceremony at St. Nicholas Park, attended by Mayor Bill de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray, marked the official renaming of the park's lawn for the writer James Baldwin, as well as the nearby St. Nicholas Playground North for the poet Langston Hughes.

In a speech, de Blasio praised Baldwin and Hughes's writing as timeless, noting its continued relevance following this summer's nationwide protests against racism police brutality.

He added that the two men, who both spent years of their lives in Harlem, helped spread the insights of the Harlem Renaissance beyond the neighborhood's boundaries.

"The greatness of Harlem, when we say that magical name, what it means all over this world is based on everyday Harlemites, but it's also based on the people who found in Harlem their truth and then made it universal for all of us," de Blasio said.

"The word renaissance means rebirth. Talk about the Harlem Renaissance many years ago, but it reminds us of the human ability to create again, no matter what is thrown at us," he continued.

Those in attendance included Carole Weinstein, the mother of Baldwin's nephew, Daniel, as well as Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver, who is presiding over the renaming of 10 park spaces around the city for Black New Yorkers.

The newly-named Langston Hughes Playground is located a few blocks south of the park, on the corner of 130th Street and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard.

Other renamings include a baseball field in the Bronx in honor of Elston Howard, the first Black player for the New York Yankees; Underhill Playground in Queens in honor of the jazz icon Ella Fitzgerald; and a wooded area of Staten Island's Fairview Park in honor of Sandy Ground, the oldest continuously inhabited free Black settlement in the U.S.

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