Walk with Black Gotham Experience for They Have Watches, But We Have Time

As part of They Have Watches, But We Have Time, the Consulate General of Switzerland in New York together with designers Iskander Guetta and Quang Vinh Nguyen are joining forces with Black Gotham Experience for a 90-min guided walk of the Other Side of Wall Street on Indigenous Peoples Day, Monday, October 12, at 5pm. 

The first of the five core stories of the Black Gotham Experience begins in 1643, with the establishment of a small settlement known as the Land of the Blacks, just outside the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam. By 1655, the Land of the Blacks was more than twice the size of present-day SoHo. The community continued to exist after the English took the island from the Dutch, making it the first free Black community in New York. Other Side of Wall Street explores how this community was established, how it endured into the 18th century, and the people and places that shaped its history.

The walk is sponsored by the Consulate as part of They Have Watches, But We Have Time, an exhibition and program conceived by Iskander Guetta and Quang Vinh Nguyen, Swiss designers and researchers in the Master of Environmental Design program at the Yale School of Architecture, in collaboration with the Consulate on the occasion of Archtober 2026. The project treats time as a material of design, asking how time is measured, organized, and imposed.

Spots are very limited. To attend, please write to nyc.culture@eda.admin.ch. Details will be sent upon confirmation.