In May 2008 Shane White and Stephen Robertson presented at the Research Seminar Series on the Black Metropolis Project.

White, Garton and Robertson aimed to produce an ethnographic study of everyday life in Harlem as it became the black capital of the world. The project examines the full range of activities that took place in Harlem between 1915 - 1930, as well as the work and leisure lives of ordinary African New Yorkers.