In the RBML’s continuing Curatorial Shorts programming, we feature a collection of oral histories on mass incarceration collected by Kurt Boone for the Oral History Archives at Columbia. The collection holds eight interviews by Boone. Boon is a collector and documentarian of urban culture – including hip hop, graffiti art, and street style. You can […]
Research at the RBML | Marija Dalbello delves into the Industrial Workers of the World collections
Labor movements have often had to create their own newspapers to disseminate their message. In the early twentieth century, the Industrial Workers of the World managed dozens of dailies as part of their broader organizing strategy, including The Industrial Workers and Solidarity, as well as periodicals for non-English speakers, such as Industrialisti, for Finnish speakers. […]
Sylvia’s In Morningside Heights?!
Long before pop-ups became a thing, the Columbia Dining Services’ Guest Chef Program brought the Harlem landmark restaurant Sylvia’s to the John Jay Hall dining room. On February 4, 1997, students not only got to sample the restaurant’s classic dishes, but they were also treated to a performance by the jazz band Funky Bud, featuring […]
Welcoming The Tania León Archive
The Rare Book & Manuscript Library is to be the home of the archive of Tania León, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 2021, and now recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2022. It seems too much of a cliché to say that Tania León’s archive is unique, but it is […]
A World Room Welcome
The announcement of Columbia’s 20th University President, Nemat “Minouche” Shafik, was held last week at the Journalism School’s World Room. Journalism Dean Jelani Cobb welcomed guests to the World Room and shared a bit of the history of the Statue of Liberty stained glass window that anchors the room. A history, which he rightly claimed, […]