Brent Edwards testifies on Scholars in Residence

I'm honored to be here.

My name is Brent Edwards.

I am a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University, and I have held two fellowships in the New York Public Library Research Libraries.

I was a fellow at the Kuhlman Center for Scholars and Writers at 42nd Street in 2006-2007.

And I was a fellow here at the Schomburg in the Scholars in Residence program in 1997-98.

For the past decade, since 2016, I have been, in addition to my job at Columbia, the director of the Scholars in Residence program here at the Schomburg.

So I'm a Schomburg staff member now.

I counted last night and I have in that capacity personally hosted 129 fellows in our short-term and long-term fellowship program,

which brings academics, independent researchers and writers, creative writers, novelists, poets and playwrights, journalists, biographers to do research in the unparalleled collections of the Schomburg.

Without recounting the careers of so many fellows that I've worked with, I'd just say to put it very simply and quickly

that the Schomburg is the preeminent repository for the documentation of African diasporic life, culture, history, and politics.

It is the foundation of the entire field.

If you work on black studies, you come through the Schomburg.

And I would say that more broadly about the research libraries, having done research at Performing Arts and at Schwarzman at 42nd Street.

These research libraries are incubators for the best and brightest for everything we do.

I also want to underline in closing a message that the previous panel, the previous two panels,

stressed that although I work with the fellows, with the high-powered academics and creative writers,

As someone who teaches at a university, Columbia, whose gates have been literally locked for the past two years, it's always striking to me to come here in an institution that is open.

And although I work with relatively high-level academics and intellectuals, I'm reminded every day of...

Time expired.

Let me just finish the sentence of the openness of the New York Public Library where I see junior high school kids.

kids researching book projects and people doing family genealogy research.

It's a crucial part of what the research libraries represent in the fabric of the city.