The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) reopened its doors during the COVID epidemic on August 27, 2020. The entrance was taken over by a series of physical controls to guarantee the health of the few visitors that would be allowed in. Only a hundred guests were allowed each hour. In fact, the total capacity was capped at a quarter of the usual number. This experience—of being at the museum almost on our own—allowed for a different phenomenology of being there.

By Charles L. Davis II

The espousal of the doctrine of Negro inferiority by the South was
primarily because of economic motives and the inter-connected

political urge necessary to support slave industry; but to the watch-
ing world it sounded like the carefully thought out result of experi-
ence and reason; and because of this it was singularly disastrous for

modern civilization in science and religion, in art and government,
as well as in industry. The South could say that the Negro, even
when brought into modern civilization, could not be civilized, and
that, therefore, he and the other colored peoples of the world were
so far inferior to the whites that the white world had a right to rule
mankind for their own selfish interests.

– W.E.B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America

Three architects, three journalists and two designers gathered over Zoom to make a list of the most influential and lasting buildings that have been erected — or cleverly updated — since World War II. Here are the results.

A list of new and recently released books from Chicago authors or publishers, plus some books you might have missed when they first came out.

What does it mean to watch and move through space, in dance and in life? As we emerge from the pandemic, we still have a moment to hold on to all that’s slow.

Amanda Williams’s ‘Embodied Sensations’ at MoMA; Matthew Wong’s ink drawings; and installations by Cameron Rowland take on policing.

On April 28, 2021 Design in Dialogue welcomed Amanda Williams, an artist whose work questions the ways that context changes the perception of the material culture of the built envionment. 

Curators and educators talk with the artist about her participatory project at MoMA, and how it helps process this moment.
 

Artists Amanda Williams and Olalekan Jeyifous use architecture to explore liberatory possibilities for Black communities.

A new collective of Black architects and artists, formed out of a show now at MoMA, aims to “reclaim the larger civic promise of architecture.” The MoMA show was organized by Sean Anderson, an associate curator at the museum, and Mabel O. Wilson, an architect, Columbia University professor and author, among much else, of “White by Design,” which describes the Modern’s failure to display and collect works by Black architects and designers.

Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot will join the Mayor’s Office of Community Engagement and other City leaders for a celebratory virtual event to commemorate Black History Month by honoring 20 Black community leaders for their commitment to supporting and advocating for Chicago’s dynamic Black residents.

The artist’s brightly painted houses return forgotten sections of Chicago’s south side to vibrant life.

Amanda Williams responds to Blackout Tuesday, a viral Instagram movement in reaction to recent police brutality and racism, with her new series: What Black Is This, You Say? 

“My beginning of the series was actually a little bit of a pushback both of the need for people to think there has to be an immediate answer, usually not a well thought out answer, and simultaneously that Blackness is monolithic,” Williams said. “So, all Black people need to get on board with subscribing to a certain way of expressing Blackness, or frustrations with injustice. And there’s less and less tolerance for more than one way to do that.”

In lieu of her Open House Lecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design scheduled for April 2, 2020 that was cancelled due to the Covid-19 outbreak, Williams speaks with Sala Elise Patterson about her work, purpose, and path.