Conceived and curated by U-M architecture professor Craig Wilkins, an exhibition at the Detroit Historical Society through April 21 examines the significance of the work of Black architects despite systemic challenges.
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This project explores the century-long quest to establish an African American presence on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., revealing the complex connections between history, architecture, aspiration, and daily life. It is located in the Robert and Mary Ann Bury Community Gallery.
Despite extensive media coverage, the journey of the Smithsonian National African American Museum of History and Culture remains largely untold, particularly in the context of African Americans’ unique relationship with the National Mall and its role in shaping national identity.
Through four time-specific narratives—three historical non-fiction and one Afrofuturistic fiction—each etched onto tiles overlaid on historical and speculative museum designs, the installation challenges the notion of history as fixed and objective. The rearrangeable and expandable tiles, including 64 pre-written and 34 blank ones for public contribution, invite visitors to disrupt the official narrative, encouraging new interpretations and diverse, evolving stories of the past, present, and future while questioning who tells these stories, why they are told, and who benefits from them.
