In NYC, Locals, Travelers Unite For Swearing-In

For those unable to make the trek to D.C. to witness history in the making, venues around Harlem and the Upper West Side opened their doors on Tuesday for live screenings of the inauguration of Barack Obama, CC ’83.

Hundreds of people filled all 760 seats of the Symphony Space’s Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, with additional viewers standing in the aisles and wings to catch a glimpse of the projection screen and even overflowing into the 172-seat Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre.

“A public place is the best place to celebrate this type of event, so we just thought, ‘Let’s throw the doors open,’” said Isaiah Sheffer, Artistic Director of the Symphony Space on Broadway and 95th Street.
In Central Harlem, crowds flocked to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture on 135th Street to hear Obama’s inaugural address. Some—like attendees Beverly English and Florence Andrews—came from as far as Michigan and Illinois. The two best friends, who had been apart for thirty years, traveled hundreds of miles to meet up and watch the ceremony in Harlem.

“It’s that warm feeling,” English said, “Everybody is gathered, all ages, young people, old people ... everybody in between. Everybody is smiling. Everybody is hugging each other.”
Like English and Andrews, Symphony Space event attendee Richard Friday also came to New York specifically to watch the swearing-in. “I’m here because I can’t be in Washington,” the Rhode Island resident said. “We wanted to be in some kind of a large public space, together with people that were celebrating.”

Native New Yorkers also took the occasion to gather communally. William Kornblum and Didi Goldenhar trekked from Jackson Heights to Riverside Church to watch the event. “I wanted to be with a crowd, with a diverse group of people” Kornblum said.

Blocks away, many convened outside Harlem’s famed Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., State Office Building on 125th Street.
In addition to celebrating the initiation of a new president, the crowds all seemed to focus on the reality of Obama’s widely disseminated message of hope. Alongside their teachers and local residents, students of the Renaissance Leadership Academy—a public middle school on 129th Street—gathered to view the inauguration and reflect upon what his success meant for their community.

For the students, Obama’s success was not just proof that a man of color could rise to the highest office, but a symbol that they all could succeed—a message the school hopes will help glean top scores on the New York State English Language Arts Exams the students take on Wednesday. Reading from his poem on the topic, “Yes We Did,” 7th grader Tyler Rowe said that, though “people expect me and Obama to fail, because both of us are black males ... when he goes into the White House after that day, I know I’m going to pass the ELA.”

Others found the historic event a moment to put work aside. Bonnie Huntt, a resident of the Upper West Side, brought her daughter Kai to the theater. “It was important to me to have her take the day off,” Bonnie said. “I wanted her to know that she could be anything she wants to be.” Harlem resident Chloe Walters, BC ’07, took time off with a group of her colleagues to watch the address at the Schomburg.

Outside the Adam Clayton Powell building, adults also reveled in Obama’s message of hope. “Growing up, I didn’t think this would really have been possible,” said Leon, 31, a Harlem resident who voted for the first time in this election. “I thought that maybe one day race relations would improve to the point where America could have a black president, but not this soon. You always have your doubts, but now we know that anything can happen.”

Leon said that nothing in his memory has excited Harlem as much as Obama’s victory, and that for him, a black president means that the neighborhood’s younger generation has “no excuses [not to succeed]. No one can really say that they are being held down anymore.”

Jessica Hills, Aaron Kiersh, Kim Rapkins, and James Tyson contributed reporting to this article.