February 2026 brings a rich slate of programs that knit together the stories of local history, national identity, community struggle, and cultural achievement. Several offerings are part of Village Preservation’s Semiquincentennial series, the Revolutionary Village, which honors the broader narrative of America’s first 250 years and how our neighborhoods helped shape them. For Black History Month we’ve partnered with Save Harlem Now! and the Merchant’s House Museum to unearth narratives of Black life in early New York and beyond as part of Save Harlem Now!’s Road to Harlem series.
The Revolutionary Village not only celebrates the founding of our country, but the exceptional role our neighborhoods played in its development and the realization of its ideals over the last 250 years and beyond. Highlighting 250 years of ongoing revolution in politics, culture, the arts, and society that have unfolded in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo. From abolitionism and women’s suffrage to labor organizing, LGBTQ+ rights, free speech, and artistic experimentation, these neighborhoods have consistently served as laboratories for American democracy.
The Road to Harlem. Long before Harlem, Black New Yorkers were shaping the city’s history, neighborhoods, culture, and institutions. This multi-part series explores that extraordinary story, beginning in 17th century New Amsterdam and continuing through centuries of resilience, community-building, creativity, and struggle. We’ll explore the remarkable free Black settlement known as the “Land of the Blacks,” the vibrant communities of Little Africa in Greenwich Village and the Tenderloin in Midtown, and the storied neighborhood of San Juan Hill, lost to urban renewal and the building of Lincoln Center. Along the way, we’ll uncover how these communities laid the groundwork for what would become Harlem. This series is about rediscovering erased histories, honoring the lives and neighborhoods that came before us, and understanding Harlem not just as a destination — but as part of a much longer road.
Learn more and register for our February 2026 programs below. All are free and open to the public. Registration is required.
Happy 150th Birthday, National League of Baseball Clubs!
Tuesday, February 2 | 6:00 PM — Zoom Webinar
This webinar spotlights a landmark moment in American sports history: the founding of the National League in 1876 right here in Greenwich Village — the oldest professional sports league still operating anywhere in the world. Presented by historian Kevin Baker, the program traces how baseball’s early professional era intersected with issues of race and labor, including the struggles of early Black professional players like Fleetwood and W.W. Walker who contested segregation in the sport’s formative decades. This isn’t just baseball history, but a lens on how American leisure, commerce, and civil rights evolved together in a rapidly changing nation.
The Road to Harlem, Part 1: Black Life in New Amsterdam
Thursday, February 5 | 6:00 PM — Zoom Webinar
Co-sponsored by Save Harlem Now! and the Merchant’s House Museum
Part 1 of The Road to Harlem series, co-sponsored with Save Harlem Now! and the Merchant’s House Museum, explores the earliest stories of free, “half-free,” and enslaved Black people in 17th-century New Amsterdam. Historian Ann Haddad examines the “Land of the Blacks,” an early free Black settlement in what later became the neighborhoods of Greenwich Village, the East Village, NoHo, SoHo, and the Lower East Side — expounding on community formation, cultural resilience, and contributions that predate the better-known Harlem narrative. This program reframes how we understand early Black life in New York, showing roots that stretch far deeper than typical historical narratives suggest.
A Slumless America: Mary K. Simkhovitch & the Dream of Affordable Housing
Tuesday, February 10 | 6:00 PM — In-person at La Nacional (Spanish Benevolent Society)
Co-sponsored by Greenwich House
This book talk brings author Betty Boyd Caroli to discuss her new biography of Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch — a key figure in America’s settlement house movement. Simkhovitch’s work, including founding Greenwich House in 1902, fought urban poverty, supported immigrants, and helped lay groundwork for public housing policy at the national level. Diving into social reform history we are reminded that ideas born right here in our neighborhoods continue to shape America.
The Road to Harlem, Part 2: Little Africa in the South Village
Thursday, February 12 | 6:00 PM — Zoom Webinar
Co-sponsored by Save Harlem Now! and the Merchant’s House Museum
The second installment in the Road to Harlem series turns to “Little Africa,” a vibrant free Black community that flourished in Greenwich Village’s South Village in the 19th century. Led by educator and cultural producer Amanda Adams-Louis, the we’ll explore Black-owned businesses, churches, and social institutions in this neighborhood, which was the most significant center of Black life in Manhattan before the shift uptown to Harlem. Little Africa highlights how Black New Yorkers organized complex, thriving communities long before Harlem became the recognized center of Black culture in the 20th century.
Between Two Extraordinary Rivers: From the East River’s Revolutions to Robert Fulton’s Hudson River Legacy
Tuesday, February 24 | 6:00 PM — Zoom Webinar
Concluding February’s Semiquincentennial lineup, this webinar with Village Preservation’s Director of Programs William Roka examines the rivers that shaped early New York, from the East River’s strategic Revolutionary War significance to the Hudson River’s transformation under Robert Fulton’s steamboat innovations. Waterways were not just physical borders but catalysts for national growth. The lecture traces how these shorelines drove not just commerce and invention but helped define the economic and cultural identity of what became the United States, situating our local history within the larger American story.
With 2026 marking 250 years since the founding of the United States, February’s programs in the Revolutionary Village series seek to foreground how Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo were key to that story. Our neighborhoods were active sites of innovation, cultural exchange, and struggle. From the birth of a national sports league to frontier Black settlements and the engines of early industrial America, these events reveal how localized history feeds into broader national memory.
Black History Month programs in February, especially The Road to Harlem series, seek to reframe long-held narratives about African American life in New York. By centering early free Black communities like the “Land of the Blacks” and Little Africa, it is critical to reclaim spaces too often overlooked in mainstream histories and situate them as foundational to the development of Black cultural and social life in Manhattan.
Register now for one or all of these free programs on offer through February 2026. Learn more about upcoming and past programs here. With over 600 videos Village Preservation’s YouTube channel offers you the chance to watch the recordings of nearly all our past programs.
