The "Harlem is DOWNTOWN" exhibit at the South Street Seaport Museum celebrates living Harlem heroes

Ask the security guard at Trinity Church and you may get a quizzical look. "No, love, Harlem is UPTOWN," was his response last week. Thinking he had a very lost tourist on his hands, what else was he to do? But then, a spark: "Oh, you mean the museum?!" he said and pointed beyond the pews toward the front left corner of the church.

Indeed, in a small room toward the front is exactly where you'll find Trinity's museum, and in it, from now until June 2005, an exhibit entitled "Harlem is DOWNTOWN." The exhibit, which tells the story of four churches at the forefront of the migration of African-American churches from downtown to Harlem, is part of a larger multi-exhibit, year-long project designed to highlight the powerful historical connection between these two Manhattan neighborhoods.

The contributions of African-Americans to New York City date back to the 1600s, when they first began arriving in Lower Manhattan ports via slave ships. In fact, Lower Manhattan was the site of the second largest slave trading center in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of slaves passed through downtown ports to other locations -- many to other parts of the country, but a sizeable number to upper Manhattan, where they cleared forests to make way for an expanding, immigrating community. In 1658, Gov. Peter Stuyvesant announced the official founding of a second village to complement the downtown encampment, already well established. It would be called "Haarlem," after a Dutch town known for its "valiant strength, perseverance, and ability to survive through difficult times."

At Trinity Church, an exhibit focuses on downtown's connection to Harlem via religion and the church

"We are thrilled that we are taking what we believe is a landmark historic exhibit that celebrates the rich history of Harlem and bringing it downtown," says Barbara Horowitz, executive director of Community Works, the non-profit Harlem-school-based organization that started the project. "We are connecting the history of Harlem to the history of downtown in a very real way."

At Trinity Church, an exhibit focuses on downtown's connection to Harlem via religion and the church. Trinity Church itself ministered to enslaved Africans throughout the 1600s, performing weddings, baptisms, and funerals. The same was true of other downtown churches, but over time, discontent with the segregation present in these white-majority-institutions spurred a move toward establishing African-American-led churches in Harlem.

The Abyssinian Baptist Church on 138th Street was formed in 1808 by African-Americans and Ethiopian immigrants unwilling to accept segregation at Lower Manhattan's First Baptist Church of New York. Setting up originally in a wooden building on Worth Street, the church moved eventually to Harlem after stints in Greenwich Village and midtown.

The Mother A.M.E. Zion Church also has downtown roots. Founded in 1796, it was the reaction of African-American congregants -- denied full privileges of church membership and segregated to balcony worship areas -- that led to the church's relocation to Harlem in 1914.

The history of these and other downtown-moving-uptown churches are chronicled and indeed brought to life through birth, marriage, and death registries maintained by Trinity, as well as other historical documents.

At the South Street Seaport Museum the exhibit focuses on living Harlem heroes

Among those figures celebrated -- in 8-by-3-foot larger-than-life panels -- are writers, dancers, political leaders, doctors, musicians, and more who have contributed in notable ways to the Harlem community's rich history. The exhibit began as a project by Community Works in Harlem classrooms designed to help kids honor local heroes and, in so doing, document the multi-cultural history of their neighborhood.

Students from a variety of schools, including G. P. Brown Computer Academy, Frederick Douglass Academy, and the Family Academy, identified leaders in the community and interviewed them to create biographies for the exhibit. The resulting large panels, one devoted to each chosen neighborhood figure, incorporate historic photos provided by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, contemporary portraits by photographer Ruth Morgan, biographical information compiled through the students' research and interviews, and quotes from the student on the individuals interviewed and their experiences with them.

"Rosa Guy writes like magic. She is brave to put her work on display. She taught us that Harlem is a place where past heroes, like Langston Hughes and Malcolm X, set examples for us. She inspires me to be the best that I can be." These are the words of the 4^th graders from the Family Academy who chose author Guy, who moved to Harlem from Trinidad in 1932 and went on to found the Harlem Writer's Guild, as their hometown hero.

Larger-than-life panels of celebrated figures who contributed  to Harlem's rich history

Among the other figures honored through the exhibit are politician Charles Rangel, opera singer Betty Allen, professional basketball player John Isaacs, choreographer Ruth Williams, and many others.

"This is very much a project where we engage young people. It speaks to all ages and is very intergenerational," says Horowitz. "It was created by young people telling the story of their elders."

Horowitz's own mother's birth is noted on the Harlem timeline at the Seaport Museum. Alice Leifer, it reads, was born on April 9, 1915, and lives on Harlem's 117^th Street.

In coming months, the project will extend to exhibits at Pace University and the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, each of which will focus on Harlem's living legacy of dance. Other exhibits are planned for additional Lower Manhattan venues, including the World Financial Center and the Henry Street Settlement's Abrons Art Center.