The Black heritage Reference Center of Queens County

Langston Hughes Library houses New York City’s most extensive circulating Black Heritage reading collection, inclusive of the extraordinary works by Langston Hughes. Since the ceremonial opening, the library has hosted such luminaries as historian John Henrik Clarke, poet Nikki Giovanni, educator Betty Shabazz, artist Tom Feelings, actor Paul Robeson and author Walter Mosley. 

The Black Heritage Reference Center of Queens serves Queens County with a comprehensive reference and circulating collection, totaling approximately 40,000 volumes of materials written explicitly about and related to Black culture. This auspicious collection emphasizes geographical areas where African Americans have lived in significant numbers, including West Africa, South America, the Caribbean, Canada, and the United States. Special features of the Black Heritage Center include an extensive microfiche collection of periodicals, Black newspapers, Schomburg clipping file, Black Slave narratives, typescripts, broadsides, pamphlets, programs, book reviews, menus, and a diverse assortment of ephemera of all kinds, more than 1,000 volumes of doctoral and master dissertations concerning Africans and African Americans in the Diaspora. 

The Black Heritage Reference Center also offers literature readings, workshops, lectures, cultural arts programming, fine art exhibitions, film festivals, dance, musical, and dramatic presentations/performances. In addition, the annual Literary Arts Festival and weekly film series screening “Curator’s Choice” are two critical educative programs that capture large audiences for their entertainment value at the Reference Center.