Celebrating Black History Month with Covenant House NY

This February, Arts Ignite returned to Covenant House New York with energy and purpose to uplift and celebrate Black History Month through the arts. Throughout the month, Covenant House NY hosted vibrant celebrations — including their Night of Leading Beyond Barriers Banquet — shining a spotlight on Black voices, artists, scholars, and visionaries. Arts Ignite was honored to lead two dynamic themed workshops: one exploring bold collage-making inspired by the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance, and another bringing the room to life through movement rooted in African dance traditions.

Covenant House NY (CHNY) is a non-profit providing residential services for over 1,600 unhoused youth, aged 16-24, in New York City. Arts Ignite has been partnered with CHNY since 2022, delivering enriching art workshops led by our talented Teaching Artists.

The Harlem Renaissance: Where Fashion Meets Resistance

Our visual art workshop explored the fashion of the Harlem Renaissance, an era of great cultural and artistic exploration. Fashion was not only used as a vehicle for self-expression and for visual aesthetics, but also as a method of empowerment and a way to challenge social norms of the mid 1910s through the 1930s. CHNY youth artists used the bold patterns and elaborate clothing designs from the Harlem Renaissance as inspiration in creating collage art that reflected their own creative voices.

The workshop began with the youth brainstorming potential ideas for self-expression through collage. With the help of an Arts Ignite Teaching Artist, the participants explored a diverse collection of magazine materials with various color schemes and textures. As their ideas came to fruition on their paper, the youth began to open up more, interacting with each other and the staff through lively conversation.

Like the activists and fashion icons of the Harlem Renaissance, the young participants showed off their bold choices through striking displays of contrasting patterns, silhouettes, text, and color. The artists’ creative capacity was expanded through this dynamic workshop, as reflected in their expressive visual work. We look forward to continuing our bi-weekly arts programs at CHNY and to further fostering a welcoming community where CHNY youth can learn, create, and thrive.