Black Reconstruction Collective

What is the Architecture of Reparations?

Response by Charlette Caldwell, Caitlyn Campbell, Brian Turner, and Ife Vanable, The Black Student Alliance (BSA+GSAPP).

Members of the Black Reconstruction Collective include Emanuel Admassu ‘12 MSAAD, ‘13 AAR; Germane Barnes; Sekou Cooke; J. Yolande Daniels ‘90 MArch; Felecia Davis; Mario Gooden ‘90 MArch, Associate Professor of Professional Practice at GSAPP; Walter Hood; Olalekan Jeyifous; V. Mitch McEwen ‘06 MArch; and Amanda Williams.

These artists, designers, architects, and scholars are each included in the exhibition Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America originally scheduled for Fall of 2020 and to open in the Spring of 2021 at the Museum of Modern Art, organized by Sean Anderson, Associate Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art; and Mabel O. Wilson ‘91 MArch, Nancy and George E. Rupp Professor at GSAPP; with Arièle Dionne-Krosnick, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art.

The Black Reconstruction Collective (BRC) provides funding, design, and intellectual support to the ongoing and incomplete project of emancipation for the African Diaspora. The BRC is committed to multi-scalar and multi-disciplinary work dedicated to dismantling systemic white supremacy and hegemonic whiteness within art, design, and academia. Founded by a group of Black architects, artists, designers, and scholars, the BRC aims to amplify knowledge production and spatial practices by individuals and organizations that further the reconstruction project.

The BRC engages the public through an annual process of reviewing proposals and providing critical and financial support to projects that have been selected by the committee. This work will manifest in built commissions, research funding, exhibitions, events, and publications, that will collectively imagine transformations to the built environment in the Black Radical Tradition.

A recording of this program is available to members of the GSAPP community by request. Please email events@arch.columbia.edu to request access.