The video of Kristin Jacobs, a language instructor from the Delaware Nation in Ontario, makes it appear as if she is in the room with visitors to a gallery at the Museum of the City of New York.
“I’m holding a Wampum Belt, and I’m here to tell you today about what a Wampum Belt is,” said Jacobs before she starts speaking in the language of the Lenape.
It’s one of several videos where women from Lenape communities talk about their lives and a historic object they are holding, part of an exhibit called “Halumii Ktapihna: Lenape Legacies and Futures.” The Lenape are the indigenous people of New York City and surrounding areas.
“It’s a show about the present which deals somehow with the past, but mostly through the language of arts and culture,” said Angel “Monxo” Lopez, curator of community histories at the museum in East Harlem.
The extensive exhibit is part of the new Puffin Foundation Center for New York City Activism. It builds on the partnership between the foundation and the museum, which dates back to 2009, with the help of a multi-million dollar gift.
“This new expanded gift enables the museum to expand our exhibition on activism as well as our programming, our publications, our collecting all under the framework of this new center,” said Sarah Seidman, Puffin Foundation curator of social activism.
The cornerstone exhibition of the center is “Raise Your Voice: New York Activism,” which looks back over more than 250 years of activism. It includes art, flyers, historical artifacts and interactive activities like making a protest poster and how to help with issues in your own community.
“We’re approaching this one differently, through the lens of tactics. How do people do activism? And our sections are on demonstrations, organizing, art and media and direct action, and through those categories we’re kind of getting at even more movements and mobilizations than before. All along the political spectrum, past and present, kind of mixed together to see what are the through lines on how and why New York has been such a key site for activism,” said Seidman.
Part of the whole story is the inhabitants of the region before the Europeans arrived. The museum worked with Lenape community members from the United States and Canada on the show.
“We wanted to show that we are still here, hence the name Halumii Ktapihna, which means we are still here forever,” said Brent Stonefish, co-founder of Éenda-Lŭnaapeewáhkiing Collective.
The Puffin Foundation gift is the second largest in the museum’s history. The center will have a public program series including lectures, film screenings, book talks and family engagement.
“Raise Your Voice” is an expansion and reimagining of “Activist New York,” an exhibition that opened in 2012 at the museum and was the most popular field trip for school children.
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