Black Spaces Matter: What is just space?

This past Friday, the BAC held a symposium to complement an exhibit, Black Spaces Matter: Exploring the Aesthetics and Architectonics of an Abolitionist Neighborhood, currently on view in the BAC’s McCormick Gallery. While the exhibit is primarily focused on the aesthetics of New Bedford, MA of an African-American and abolitionist neighborhood, this panel addressed broader issues concerning Black neighborhoods across the United States and African-American heritage in general.

To the BAC, Black Spaces Matter is a promise. Black Spaces Matter is statement of fact. Black Spaces Matter is also a provocation - and a question that comes at a time of racial strife unfolding all around us. Black Spaces Matter asks us to imagine how spaces can hold racial potential and counter public spaces. What is the full potential of space? How does it influence individual and communal dreams? How can a neighborhood build its potential for coming together? This symposium unpacked these questions and others to make room for many voices en route to action.

At the BAC, diversity is not only what we believe in, it is also who we are. The BAC’s mission has evolved over the past nearly 130 years - beginning as a place to invite everyone in for conversations about design and architecture – moving to a place of formal education and gathering for the professions. We are proud that in 2015, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education included the BAC in its top 100 schools that confer the most degrees on minority students. Our classrooms, our studios and our design offices must look like the cities we serve. We can only do our best work when all points of view can be represented and included.

This exhibit and complementary symposium came to the BAC through an accomplished alumna, Jennifer McGrory, who is now a Senior Associate and Project Architect at Perkins + Will – whose firm helped support this exhibit. Jennifer introduced us to a scholar, curator, and New Bedford resident, Pamela Karimi. Pamela holds a PhD from MIT in History, Theory & Criticism of Art and Architecture. While Dr. Karimi’s primary field of specialization is art, architecture, and visual culture of the modern Middle East, her second area of research is design and sustainability in North America. Before joining the Art History faculty at UMass Dartmouth, Dr. Karimi taught at Brandeis University, NYU, and Wellesley College. She is a prolific writer moving from Iranian Heritage to Massachusetts Gateway Cities. Pamela’s commitment to making her visual and community research into an exhibit and symposium that reached more people is the reason that we are gathered here this evening. 

Black Spaces Matter: The Architectonics and Aesthetics of an Abolitionist Neighborhood returns us vividly through documentary films by Don Burton, through contemporary photographs by Michael Swartz, and historical images and artifacts to a history that most of us study as a blur of information in elementary and high school. The revelations in the exhibit about how a community came together to restore dignity to these historic spaces and keep the history alive through education and experiential learning is commendable. 

Dr. Karimi invited her collaborators and a scholar from the University of Michigan, Jana Cephas to participate in a symposium and panel discussion. Jana holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University and an M. Arch. from the University of Detroit Mercy. Dr. Cephas was the 2011 Critical Studies Fellow at Cranbrook Academy of Art. She has served as the Editorial Director for Positions: On Modern Architecture + Urbanism / Histories + Theories and was a Design + Research Fellow at the Detroit Collaborative Design Center, where she designed and managed building projects for low-income communities.

Dr. Jana Cephas brought forward her synthetic scholarship of African American cultural history through a compelling geo-spatial history that is interactive and visually remarkable and comprehensive. Jana shared how her work extends that of civil rights activist, social philosopher and historian, W. E. B. Du Bois, in Philadelphia. Jana spoke about how social difference are instituted through spatial difference. Jana seeks just space. When I first heard this term – I thought Jana was speaking about merely space – but it become evident that black bodies in public space are constrained and judged – and that we must all aim for just space – space that is socially just and open to all. 

Dr. Karimi also invited Lee Blake, president of the New Bedford Historical Society, who spoke passionately and personally. Ms. Black explained how her own biography and her commitment as an educator to teach has served as a local catalyst to preserve physical places and artifacts as well as carry forward these stories through memorials and events.

To mark December 3, International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the BAC hosted a performance by an inclusive group of dancers. The Heidi Latsky dance group raised questions about the body as spectacle and society’s obsession with body image. It transformed a cast of diverse and extreme bodies, some with disabilities, into a ‘sculpture court’ where the performers became living art that demonstrates inclusion through art. The choreographer explained the performance to some gallery visitors as an opportunity for people who are often stared at – for not belonging – to stare back, to be empowered. 

I cannot recall a more important and inclusive series of events in Boston. I am proud of being associated with the BAC for hosting this exhibit, this symposium, and this performance.