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Throughout our history we have acted as an incubator and springboard for artistic and intellectual brilliance, community-building initiatives and cutting-edge academic works presented in engaging ways. Of our most memorable moments:

• Presenting transcendent talent, such as Celia Cruz, Max Roach, Amiri Baraka, Tito Puente, Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson, Hugh Masekela and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. CCCADI was the first presenter to place rap music on stage at Lincoln Center, in 1989, with Queen Latifah, The Roots, A Tribe Called Quest and MC Lyte. We knew then that hip-hop deserved a place on the world stage and that it would become the global phenomenon that it is today.

• Organizing international gatherings, such as the Orisha Tradition World Conference in Nigeria (1981), Brazil (1983) and NYC (1986), which convened global academics, spiritual leaders and practitioners of Yoruba sacred religious traditions for the first time in history.

• Curating many groundbreaking shows, such as Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain, 1966-1996 (1996), which amassed more than 100 works into an exhibition that was simultaneously on-view at CCCADI, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and The Bronx Museum of the Arts. The landmark exhibition became a model for institutional collaboration.

And now, CCCADI is on the verge of a tremendous transition as it relocates to East Harlem. Last year we were selected as the developers of a historic firehouse at 120 E. 125th Street, which we are currently renovating and will be opening to the public in 2015. This move places us strategically amidst the communities we aim to serve, while extending the rich cultural throughway of 125th Street eastward. Crafting a momentous symbolic bridge, this new location will allow CCCADI to connect the African and African American communities of West and Central Harlem with the Latino populations historically residing east of 5th Avenue."

Source: http://cccadi.org/message-from-president-founder/