The “Slave Play” actress and the Chicago-based artist discuss generational gaps, success and the art that brought them each acclaim.

RECORD has announced the 2021 winners of its Women in Architecture Design Leadership awards, which recognize and promote the role of women in the profession in the U.S. across five categories: Design Leader, New Generation Leader, Innovator, Activist and Educator. Now in its eighth year, the award’s winners for 2021 are Design Leader Annabelle Selldorf, New Generation Leader Amanda Williams, Innovator Julie Bargmann, Educator Deborah Berke, and Activist Tamarah Begay. Through their efforts in design and in tackling broader social challenges, these five women have proved to be inspiring leaders in the field of architecture and beyond.

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

Chicago-based artist Amanda Williams – tipped by architect Frida Escobedo as one of 25 creative leaders of the future in Wallpaper’s 25th Anniversary Issue ‘5x5’ project – uses colour to dissect politics, urban landscapes and Black social space.

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.

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

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.

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. 

On a clear October evening, a full house gathered at the Newberry, Chicago’s world-renowned independent research library, to listen to a conversation between author, photographer and former Sun-Times architecture critic Lee Bey and visual artist Amanda Williams.

In his new book, Southern Exposure: The Overlooked Architecture of Chicago’s South Side, Bey documents the physical attributes of significant architecture with striking photographic images portrayed at their best under the bright, blue skies of morning light. Throughout the book he thoughtfully weaves a cultural and social narrative elevating these environs to their rightful importance while criticizing forces and policies that have ignored the South Side’s rich architectural heritage. Echoing Bey’s visual cues, architecture-trained visual artist Amanda Williams’ foreword sets a joyful tone comparing the exuberance of Bey’s work to the happy crescendo of one of her favorite musical pieces: Native Chicagoan Donny Hathaway’s 1970 hit “This Christmas,” with its heartfelt message, “I’m gonna get to know you better,” resounds with the camaraderie and experiences both she and Bey have had with South Side culture.

To put the significance of this book project in perspective, Bey’s ascribed South Side represents an area that makes up more than half the city’s land mass. Approximately bounded by Cermak Road, 138th Street, Lake Michigan and Western Avenue, the area is vast and includes work by architecture and design luminaries, businesses run by notable black entrepreneurs, pioneering artists and a South Side community representing over thirty neighborhoods and a population of nearly 800,000.