Lincoln Center Pays Homage to San Juan Hill

Starting this week, Lincoln Center is putting on a series of events in honor of New York’s lost neighborhood of San Juan Hill, which was once home to the largest Black community in New York City and later a significant Puerto Rican population. San Juan Hill was demolished as part of the "urban renewal" plan that created the Lincoln Center campus and other major developments in the Lincoln Square area between the 1940s and 1950s.  

Sounds of San Juan Hill events began on September 29th and will culminate with two performances featuring the world premiere of Etienne Charles’ new work, San Juan Hill: A New York Story, on October 8th, one at 2pm and one at 8pm. The concerts, performed by Etienne Charles & Creole Soul and the New York Philharmonic, and conducted by Music Director Jaap van Zweden, will inaugurate the new David Geffen Hall and Wu Tsai Theater. Tickets are available on a Choose-What-You-Pay basis, starting at $5 per ticket. Tickets are going fast, so don’t dawdle. There will also be a limited number of free tickets available on the day of the performances at the Welcome Center in David Geffen Hall starting at 10am. The program is co-presented by Lincoln Center and the New York Philharmonic and commissioned by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. 

San Juan Hill: A New York Story is an immersive multimedia work using music, visuals, and original first-person accounts of the history of the San Juan Hill neighborhood and the indigenous and immigrant communities that populated the area. The musical elements include Ragtime, Jazz, Stride piano, Swing, Blues, Mambo, Paseo, Antillean Waltz, Calypso, Funk, Disco, and Hip Hop. The music is woven together with historical film and present-day interviews to showcase the many musical styles and cultures migrants from the south and the Caribbean brought to New York. 

In the leadup to the premiere, Charles, Lincoln Center, and the New York Philharmonic are partnering for a series of programming and artistic activations that memorialize and reckon with Lincoln Center’s history, as well as look to the future. The programs in the series are free and include a movement workshop and performance, a dance party, a moderated conversation, and a panel conversation. They will explore the preservation and transformation of culture, gentrification, community activism, as well as resilience in resistance to adversity.  

Lincoln Center's commitment to paying homage to San Juan Hill even extends to the institution’s literal walls. Nina Chanel Abney created a visual artwork on the nearly 200-foot-long 65th Street façade of the new David Geffen Hall. The installation, entitled San Juan Heal, showcases iconography inspired by the rich cultural heritage and complex history of San Juan Hill. It features 35 icons, including portraits of some of the neighborhood's pioneers and celebrated musicians, as well as symbols and text derived from the era’s protest flyers. “Love” is at the center of the piece. Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and Public Art Fund commissioned the project through a partnership.  

If you have any questions about these events, you can contact Guest Experience at 212-875-5456 or guestexperience@lincolncenter.org.