Harlem Design District 2026
Theme: Design Connects Us
Dates: May 14 – May 20, 2026

Harlem Design District 2026 is a week-long, community-centered festival that positions Harlem as a global hub of culture, creativity, and design innovation. Presented as part of the NYCxDESIGN Festival, this dynamic series of activations explores how design acts as a powerful connector—bridging history to future, people to place, and creativity to community impact.

Taking place across iconic Harlem locations, the festival invites residents, visitors, artists, designers, educators, and cultural leaders to experience Harlem as both a living archive and a forward-thinking creative ecosystem. From immersive public art and youth-led design workshops to storytelling, exhibitions, and civic engagement, each program highlights design as a tool for belonging, equity, and transformation.

Program Highlights Include:

Generative Histories Harlem
(May 15, 2:30pm to 6:00pm) | MLK Houses – King Dome, 90 Malcolm X Blvd, Harlem↗
RSVP Here: https://forms.gle/jWAsP4B1v4wwsUJ36↗
A culminating public activation led by the Place, Memory & Culture Incubator at City College of New York Spitzer School of Architecture, transforming academic research into a vibrant community experience along Harlem’s historic 116th Street corridor.

Block the Block Harlem: Designers of Tomorrow
(May 16, Noon to 4:00pm) | Harlem Hospital Center, 506 Lenox Avenue, Harlem↗
RSVP Here: https://forms.gle/jWAsP4B1v4wwsUJ36↗
A youth-centered day of creativity featuring hands-on workshops, guided tours of the “Harlem Is…” exhibit and WPA murals, and collaborative design challenges that empower the next generation of cultural leaders.

Harlem Renaissance 2.0: The Blueprint of Belonging
(May 17, 2:00pm to 3:30pm) | The Forum at Columbia University (Foyer), 605 West 125th Street, Harlem↗
RSVP Here: https://forms.gle/jWAsP4B1v4wwsUJ36↗
A powerful celebration of public art and identity, including a guided tour of 125th Street banner installations and a design talk exploring typography, storytelling, and cultural memory.

The Inquiry Design Lab
(May 17, 3:30pm to 6:00pm) | Café Melo Harlem, 45 Lenox Avenue, Harlem↗
RSVP Here:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/harlem-nycxdesign-tickets-1988486087416↗
An interactive “Museum of Inquiry” transforming a neighborhood café into a hands-on design lab where curiosity, storytelling, and digital engagement foster meaningful connections.

The Ground We Build On: Harlem, Landscape & Cultural Memory
(May 18, 6:00pm to 7:30pm) / NiLu, 191 Malcolm X Blvd, Harlem
RSVP Here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-ground-we-build-on-harlem-landscape-cultural-memory-tickets-1988953877589
Join Sara Zewde (Studio Zewde / Harvard GSD) and NYCxDesign Chair Pascale Sablan (The Third Office / Beyond the Built Environment) for an intimate salon exploring how design shapes culture, identity, and belonging in Harlem and beyond. Hosted at NiLu, a cultural anchor in Harlem, this conversation moves beyond the technical to examine how lineage and lived experience actively inform--and challenge--the making of world-class design. The dialogue concludes with a signing of Sablan’s book, GREATNESS: Diverse Designers of Architecture.

The Heart of Hamilton Heights
(May 20, 1:00pm to 5:00pm with Private Tour 3:30pm to 5:00pm) | Johnny Hartman Square, Hamilton Place & W 143rd Street, Harlem 10031↗
RSVP Here: https://forms.gle/jWAsP4B1v4wwsUJ36↗
A live demonstration of community-led urban design in partnership with The Brotherhood Sister Sol, showcasing youth-led installations and participatory mapping as tools for equity, wellness, and public space ownership.

Join us in Harlem—where design is not just created, but lived.