Ninth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) opened its doors in September of 2016. One of its inaugural exhibitions is the “Power of Place.” This exhibition uses ten case studies of places in the U.S. illustrating the distinct flavor and experience of each - including the Bronx, Oak Bluffs in Martha’s Vineyard Massachusetts, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Greenville, Mississippi. These place studies contain a mix of diverse stories—well-known and unknown; mainstream and edgy; celebratory and challenging. At the center of this exhibition the idea of place and region as a crucial component of the African American experience is explored through an interactive multimedia area called the “Place Table.” This table shows professional and personal photographs dating back more than a century. Behind each photo is a story that describes African American life in every pocket of the country. The stories reflect on themes of home, migration, community, displacement, neighborhood, travel, and loss. The table seeks to highlight regional African American culture, and also recognizes the ways in which place is tied to displacement for the community – those places that were lost. In this paper, I explore the development of the table, how stories and images were chosen to highlight the personal and social impacts of physical spaces, and the struggles of both finding stories from lost environments and crowd-sourcing new entries within the black community.