Black Gotham Experience offers insight into 17th century New York

Diversity Education sponsored a Black Gotham Experience Tour in New York City this past Saturday, Feb. 24 as a continuation of Stevens’ Black History Month Celebration.

The Black Gotham Experience was started in the very same way we explore our world: through questioning. Kamau Ware, the group’s tour guide and founder of the Black Gotham Experience, recognized that black people were missing from New York City’s history long before the thin sliver of land in the Hudson was formally established as New York. Why the absence?

According to its website, The Black Gotham Experience is “an immersive visual storytelling project that celebrates the impact of the African Diaspora on New York City since 1625,” an impact that has long been forgotten in history textbooks. Ware introduced the origins of his work and the African Diaspora as a whole within his small studio, which is situated comfortably between Fulton and John Streets just several hundred meters away from the East River.

Ware encouraged the use of “empathy and imagination” as he led the group along familiar sidewalks and pathways to recreate what the tip of Manhattan looked, smelled, and sounded like almost three centuries ago. Each member of the group was provided a character card to help aid in the re-visualization of the commonly-known space.

For 90 minutes, Ware served as a raconteur, detailing the port city as it was in 1680, then known as the epicenter of the British Translatlantic Slave Trade. The island was home to many different types of people, including a wealthy master business class, merchants, pirates, sailors, free Black people, and enslaved Africans. Unbeknownst to many, the change in power from Dutch to British rule fueled the first armed Black rebellion in 1712, a piece of history left out with the spectre of the colonies’ revolution looming in the near future.

The tour ended at the Black Gotham Experience studio, where Ware continues to operate as an artist-in-residence with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, supported by the Howard Hughes Corporation.

Jacquis Watters, Stevens’ Diversity Educator and coordinator of the trip, was impressed by the experience and is now committed to bringing students back to the Black Gotham Experience for another round of storytelling.