Focusing on case studies of African American everyday spaces, architecrural and artistic practices, the book weaves together some fascinating and engaging stories, not generally known. The story of the Weeksville community in Brooklyn is one of them. Founded in 1838 by formerly enslaved people seeking to create a community from scratch, once the slavery was outlawed in NY, it became highly distinguished neighborhood, that could not survived the expansion of Brooklyn. Its remains were discovered in the sixties and eventually have brought to the establishment of the Weeksville Heritage Center. That story is told by Elizabeth Kennerdy who created the landscape for the center, and by its architects, Sara Caples and Everardo Jeffferson.
Revisiting and reproducing Black aesthetics is the case study of interdisciplinary artist Walis Johnson, who documents the experience of Black landscape through a variety of artistic expressions. The focus of her work is the culture and history that helps us understanding the African American life and reality, as seen in her project The Red Line Archive.
This volume is a valuable addition to the literature of design and identity. It illuminates the the connection between African American experience and its collective memory and contemporary architecture, culture, and art. Above: House 2, Project Row Houses, Houston, Texas, 2001 © Yolande Daniesl.
