Discover the rich heritage and beauty of Woodlawn Cemetery through a variety of events, including walking and trolley tours and more. See our updated list of upcoming live events below, as well as our offerings of Virtual Tours.
Tours & Events
UPCOMING EVENT
Countee Cullen, The Salons, and The Black Tower
Saturday, June 12, 2:00 PM – 3:30PM – Trolley Tour
Join us for a trolley tour celebrating Woodlawn’s African American and Afro-Caribbean Heritage. We will visit the sites of Countee Cullen and Hubert Harrison and read their writings along the way. This tour supports Woodlawn’s reading and discussion group sponsored by Humanities New York. We ask that all tour participants please wear a mask while on the Trolley. Children over the age of 4 require a ticket for this tour.
Tickets are $15 PP. Please click here to purchase tickets.
Upcoming Event
Woodlawn Reading and Discussion Group
The Black Church: This is Our Story, This is Our Song by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Tuesday, June 22, 2021 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM via Zoom
Join us for an on-line discussion of the Black Church and learn about the notable African-American Reverends buried at Woodlawn. This event is sponsored by Humanities New York.
UPCOMING EVENT
Trolley Tour – Woodlawn’s Greats of Jazz and Vaudeville
Join Michael Cumella, aka DJ MAC for a Victrola Trolley Tour
Sunday, June 27th and 11am and 2pm
Join us for a Trolley Tour visiting the final resting place of the Vaudeville and Jazz Greats at Woodlawn Cemetery. The stops on the tour will include George M. Cohan, Nora Bays, Duke Ellington and many more. You will listen to the music of these notable musicians played on a Victrola. Take a step back in time with your host Michael Cumella, aka DJ MAC and join us for the Jazz Age. We ask that all tour participants please wear a mask while on the Trolley. Children over the age of 4 require a ticket for this tour. Tickets are $25 per person, $20 for Members and Seniors.
For the 11am Tour Please Click Here
For the 2pm Tour Please Click Here
MAY EVENT
The Tuesday Night Club
Join us for a performance of inspired by Cicely Tyson – A movement from Victor Goines’ Woodlawn Suite
A discussion of the piece with Victor Goines and A’Lelia Bundles.
Tuesday, May 25, 2021 – 6pm
Via Zoom – Click Here for Link
Please join us for an installment of the Woodlawn Suite, Music by Victor Goines inspired by the lives and legacies at Woodlawn. This movement is inspired by the great American actress Cicely Tyson. A discussion between Victor Goines and A’Lelia Bundles will follow.
MAY EVENT
Tuesday Night Book Club
Join us for the Woodlawn Book Club – The Conjure Man Dies by Rudolph Fisher
Tuesday, May 18, 2021 6pm – 7pm
Woodlawn notable, Rudolph Fisher, was a physician, radiologist, short story writer, dramatist, mystery writer, musician and orator. His first novel, “The Conjure-Man Dies” (1932) is the first detective novel with a black detective and only black characters. Fisher was also deeply involved with the Harlem Renaissance both as a novelist and as a musician. Please join us for an on-line discussion of this book. The program is supported by a grant from Humanities New York.
APRIL EVENT
Story on the Go
Celebrate Arbor Day and Spring at Woodlawn on April 30th, May 1st and May 2nd.
In Partnership with the NYPL and the Woodlawn Heights Library Support Group, Woodlawn is happy to host Story on the Go. Enter at the Jerome Avenue Gate and follow the Storyboards to read Shape Me A Rhyme: Nature’s Forms in Poetry by Jane Yolen. Children will receive a free Arboretum Activity Book at the end of their visit. We ask that you register for this free event using the link’s below.
April Event
Woodlawn’s Earth Day Celebration – This event is at Capacity. There are no additional tickets available.
Saturday, April 24, 2021 11 AM – 3 PM
Bring your family and friends to watch a chainsaw artist carve a tree trunk, join a scavenger hunt, partake in a craft project, participate in a tree planting, learn from the experts about tree pruning, tree maintenance and much more! Enjoy a ride on the Woodlawn Conservancy trolley. Stroll through our Arboretum to enjoy more than 392 species of trees. There is something for everyone of all ages. There is no admittance fee and to boot, you’ll be able to partake in a complimentary hotdog lunch on us! Registration is required and complimentary lunch tickets will be distributed on the day of the event to all those who have pre-registered.
April EVENT
Jazz Appreciation Month Trolley Tour
Sunday, April 18, 2021, 2:00 PM
Join us on the Woodlawn Conservancy trolley tour in celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month. Discover the history of Jazz with stories about the legendary entertainers in our care. We will visit the final resting places of some of the world’s most notable jazz artists, from W.C. Handy to King Oliver, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Jean-Baptiste “Illinois” Jacquet, Florence Mills, Clark Terry, Jackie McLean.
To register, click here.
Sold Out Event – Jazz Appreciation Month Trolley Tour
Sunday, April 18, 2021, 12:00 PM
Join us on the Woodlawn Conservancy trolley tour in celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month. Discover the history of Jazz with stories about the legendary entertainers in our care. We will visit the final resting places of some of the world’s most notable jazz artists, from W.C. Handy to King Oliver, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Jean-Baptiste “Illinois” Jacquet, Florence Mills, Clark Terry, Jackie McLean, and many others.
To register, click here.
SOLD OUT EVENT – Woodlawn’s Titanic Trolley Tour
Sunday, April 11th
Join noted Titanic tour guide, Dave Gardner, as he leads you on a trolley tour throughout Woodlawn to visit the final resting places of Titanic passengers, some victims and other survivors. Woodlawn is the final resting place to a dozen Titanic passengers, more than other site in the U.S. This tour of their gravesites will also include the sites of several people who became indirectly, intertwined with the catastrophe that ranks among the worst of maritime disasters. You will learn about a passenger who smuggled his dog onto a lifeboat, sisters who were saved and reunited on the Carpathia and much more! Meet at the Jerome Avenue Gate.
12:00 PM Tour – SOLD OUT
2:00 PM Tour SOLD OUT
March Event
The Tuesday Night Club with Eric K. Washington, A’Lelia Bundles and Victor Goines
Tuesday, March 30, 2021, 6:00 PM
Please join us on Tuesday, March 30, 2021 at 6:00 PM for The Tuesday Night Club for a discussion of Boss of the Grips: The Life of James H. Williams and the Red Caps of Grand Central Terminal by Eric K. Washington. Learn the remarkable story of James H. Williams (1878-1948), the chief porter of Grand Central Terminal’s Red Caps – a multitude of Harlem-based black men whom he organized into the essential labor force of America’s most august railroad station. The panel will include A’Lelia Bundles, Author of On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam CJ Walker, and Victor Goines, clarinetist, saxophonist, and educator. Victor will preview a movement from the Woodlawn Suite inspired by the life of Chief Williams.
To Register for the Zoom Link, please click here.
March Event
Woodlawn’s Women of Distinction Trolley Tour
March 21, 2021 12:30 PM – Sold Out
March 21, 2021 2:30 PM – Tickets Available
Join us as we ride on the Woodlawn Conservancy Trolley in celebration of Women’s History Month. Celebrate the lives of many of our women notables who helped to shape our culture as leaders in business, music, politics and much more. Among the gravesites to be visited are the “Queen of Salsa” Celia Cruz, America’s richest self-made woman Madam C.J. Walker, the “Queen of Happiness” Florence Mills, suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alva Vanderbilt Belmont, America’s first investigative reporter Nellie Bly, Olympic Gold Medalist Gertrude Ederle, founder of Pepperidge Farm’s Margaret Rudkin and more.
We will be meeting at the Jerome Avenue and Bainbridge Avenue gate .
For Reservations for 2:30 Tour click here.
March Event
Woodlawn’s Irish-American Trolley Tour
Sunday March 14th, 12:00 PM and 2:30 PM (2:30 Tour is sold out)
Come along on the Woodlawn Conservancy Trolley for our annual Irish-American tour. Visit beautiful Celtic gravestones and mausoleums of Irish-Americans in time for St. Patrick’s Day. See the final resting places of actors, authors, patriots and politicians, including Geraldine Fitzgerald, Chauncey Olcott, and James Gralton. Find out about New York’s connection to Ireland going back more than 200 years with men and women who have roots in the Emerald Isle. We will talk about art, history, music, and Irish folklore. Your guide is Kevin Fitzpatrick, descended from County Kildare and a long line of rascals, writers, and firemen. He is the award winning author of “111 Places In The Bronx That You Must Not Miss” and multiple city guide books. This is a family friendly tour and there will be a prize for the Best Aran Sweater. You don’t have to be Irish to take the tour – because on St. Patrick’s Day, everyone is Irish! Double Bonus for Claddagh rings and earrings.
To Register for the 12:00 PM Tour Click Here.
SOLD OUT! To Register for the 2:30 PM Tour Click Here.
March Event
The Tuesday Night Club – Virtual Book Club with the Woodlawn Conservancy and A’Lelia Bundles
Tuesday, March 9th, 7:00 PM.
Please join us for a Virtual Book Club with A’Lelia Bundles, great, great granddaughter of Madam C.J. Walker, author of Self Made and the upcoming book, The Joy Goddess of Harlem: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance. Please join us via zoom by clicking here.
Author and journalist A’Lelia Bundles writes biographies about the amazing women in her family: entrepreneur Madam C. J. Walker and Harlem Renaissance icon A’Lelia Walker. On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker is a New York Times Notable Book and the non-fiction source for Self Made, the fictionalized four-part Netflix series starring Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer that premiered on March 20, 2020. She is at work on her fifth book, The Joy Goddess of Harlem: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance, about her great-grandmother whose parties, arts patronage and travels helped define the era. After a 30-year career as an executive and Emmy award winning producer with ABC News and NBC News, she now is brand historian for MCJW, a line of hair care products inspired by Madam Walker and created by Sundial Brands. She is a trustee of Columbia University and chair emerita of the National Archives Foundation. Ms. Bundles also speaks at conferences, colleges, corporate events and other venues about entrepreneurship, philanthropy, financial literacy and women’s and African American history.
February Event
The African American Legacy at Woodlawn – Trolley Tour
Sunday, February 28th at 12pm and 2:30 PM
In honor of Black History Month, please join us at Woodlawn Cemetery for a tour of the notable African Americans buried at Woodlawn. Led by Susan Olsen, our Director of Historical Services and Elizabeth Cooney our Manager of Public Programs, the tour will feature the stories of African Americans involved with the Jazz Age, the Suffrage Movement, Entertainment, Sports, Business, and Civic Life. Stops will include Madam C.J. Walker, Bessye Bearden, Countee Cullen, Rudolph Fisher, Coleman Hawkins, Norma Miller, Celia Cruz, Bumpy Johnson and Ralph Bunche.
The tour meets at the Webster Avenue Entrance. This Trolley Tour has hop-on and hop-off points during the tour – please dress warmly. Fee $30, $25 for seniors and members.
There will be two tours that day. For reservations for the 12pm tour, click here.
For Reservations for the 2:30 PM tour, click here.
For additional information, please call 718-408-5624.
February Event
The Tuesday Night Club with Victor Goines – Join us for a Movement from The Woodlawn Suite
Tuesday, February 23rd, 7:00 PM.
Please join us for a very special evening with Victor Goines and A’Lelia Bundles as we present Madam C.J. Walker from Victor Goines’ Woodlawn Suite. The Program will be held on Zoom. To join please click here.
Clarinetist, saxophonist, and educator Victor Goines is one of the most respected and multi-faceted musicians in the jazz world today. He is a member of the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra since 1993 and as well as a leader of his own quartet. As a leader, Goines has ten recordings to his credit including his latest A Dance At The Mardi Gras Ball (2016, Rosemary Joseph Records). A gifted composer as well, he has more than 100 original compositions and 50 arrangements for jazz orchestra and small ensembles along with and a number of commissions including Untamed Elegance (2016, Jazz At Lincoln Center), Crescent City (2014, Jazz At Lincoln Center), Suite for Bird (2014 Music Institute of Chicago), Benny: Then, Now, Forever (2009, ASCAP/Louis Armstrong Foundations), Three Sketches for Band (2008, University of Scranton) and Base Line (2002, The Juilliard School) to name a few.
The Performance will be followed by a discussion with A’Lelia Bundles, the Great-Great-Granddaughter of Madam C.J. Walker.
Author and journalist A’Lelia Bundles writes biographies about the amazing women in her family: entrepreneur Madam C. J. Walker and Harlem Renaissance icon A’Lelia Walker. On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker is a New York Times Notable Book and the non-fiction source for Self Made, the fictionalized four-part Netflix series starring Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer that premiered on March 20, 2020. She is at work on her fifth book, The Joy Goddess of Harlem: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance, about her great-grandmother whose parties, arts patronage and travels helped define the era. After a 30-year career as an executive and Emmy award winning producer with ABC News and NBC News, she now is brand historian for MCJW, a line of hair care products inspired by Madam Walker and created by Sundial Brands. She is a trustee of Columbia University and chair emerita of the National Archives Foundation. Ms. Bundles also speaks at conferences, colleges, corporate events and other venues about entrepreneurship, philanthropy, financial literacy and women’s and African American history.
February Event
Van Cortlandt Park and Woodlawn Cemetery Winter Tree ID
Saturday, February 20, 2021
1:00 p.m.–2:30 p.m.
Join the Rangers as we explore interesting tree species in the winter season in two of the Bronx’s premiere green spaces: Van Cortlandt Park and Woodlawn Cemetery.
Participants are chosen by lottery. To enter, visit the Urban Park Rangers Registration Page. Lottery registration begins Wednesday, February 10th.
Please note: We are offering outdoor programs with limited attendance so that you can have a safe and enjoyable time in parks. Based on New York State guidance for sports and recreation [PDF] during COVID-19, we’ve put protocols into place to keep our participants and staff safe and healthy. We’re asking everyone to help us stay safe:
- Stay home if you’re sick
- Maintain six feet of physical distance between households
- Wear a face covering
- Wash your hands
Additionally, we encourage participants to bring their own hand sanitizer to our programs.