2nd Annual Gene Norman Preservation Awards Gala

The Riverside Church - South Hall 91 Claremont Avenue New York, NY, 10027 United States (map)

Alfred Warren Gene Norman, Feb 1935 - Sept 2020, was the first, and to date only, African American Chairman of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), and a co-founder of Save Harlem Now!
Serving under Mayor Edward I. Koch in the 1980s, Norman helped defeat New York State legislation that would have exempted religious institutions from landmarks designation, and oversaw the preservation of St. Bartholomew's Church. During his tenure as chairman, LPC granted landmark designation to the Coty and Rizzoli Buildings on Fifth Avenue; the Ladies Mile shopping area from 15th to 24th Streets, between Park Avenue South and Avenue of the Americas; and the Coney Island Cyclone. Norman was widely praised for his superior skill in navigating New York City's landmarking bureaucracy.

Lana Turner is quintessential Harlem, a landmark unto herself. A reader, writer, thinker, and researcher with a keen interest in the elements of art and style in black culture and why this meditation matters, she has earned the endearing title of “Queen of Harlem” from many. She works as a real estate professional, producer, archivist, and preservationist.
Ms. Turner is co-founder and chair of The Literary Society, a Harlem-based book discussion group of 100 members. Founded in 1982, members of the group meet monthly to explore books about Black people by Black authors. Always breaking new ground to celebrate Harlem's history and its institutions, she founded the popular Men Who Cook, initially to support the Harlem Art Carnival. Collaborating with other Harlem groups, she has supported music, jazz and classical chamber music by producing Harlem 'brownstone parlor concerts" in historic Harlem homes.

The James A. Bailey mansion at St. Nicholas Place and West 150th Street was built in 1888 for the partner of P.T. Barnum in the Greatest Show on Earth. Although designated a New York City landmark in 1974, by the early 2000’s the mansion was leak-plagued and in massive disrepair.
The Bailey mansion has been saved by an enterprising couple, Martin Spollen and Chen “Jenny” Jie, Harlem residents since 2005, who bought it in 2009, and have been restoring it ever since. The couple has been doing much of the careful restoration with their own hands and, even with cash raised from renting out the mansion as a location for television shows like Law and Order and Boardwalk Empire, they expect the project to take another 5 to 10 years to complete.

Founded in 1925 and named a National Historic Landmark in 2017, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is one of the world’s leading cultural institutions devoted to the research, preservation, and exhibition of materials focused on African American, African Diaspora, and African experiences. As a research center of The New York Public Library, the Schomburg Center features diverse programming and collections spanning over 11 million items that illuminate the richness of global Black history, arts, and culture.

Jane Tillman Irving is a well-known New York City broadcast journalist. She retired after 18 years as a news writer and reporter for WCBS-AM/Newsradio 880. It was her second employment at the station; she worked there as a reporter for 14 years before joining WCBS-TV/Channel 2 in the mid-1980s as a correspondent. In addition, she served as news anchor for WebMD’s daily Internet news broadcast for physicians. She was United States Researcher for productions by BBC Television and fflic Films in Wales, and has been a freelance television correspondent for ABC News One.
Irving has worked as a news anchor for radio stations WLIB, WBLS and WWRL, all in New York City. She has won more than 30 awards for outstanding news coverage, including the Gracie from the Alliance for Women in Media and the WGA Award from the Writers’ Guild of America. She spent six years as an assistant professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. In retirement, she has been president of the New York Press Club and a member of the Community Advisory Board of New York Public Radio (WNYC).
Jane Tillman Irving graduated from Hunter College High School, earned her undergraduate degree in English from the City College of New York, and completed the graduate level Radcliffe College Publishing Procedures Course at Harvard University.

Panel Discussion on the Harlem African Burial Ground