In Search of African American Space

In Search of African American Space explores the relationship between the African diaspora and contemporary spatial practice from multiple critical vantages in order to locate a transhistorical moment in the afterlife of slavery. Traditional notions of space are challenged as the analyses in this volume transcend discipline, deriving from architecture, performance art, history, and visual theory. Richly illustrated and organized thematically, the anthology is divided into two sections. The first is dedicated to an aspect of practice that has operated outside of the academy. Contributions by architects of arguably the first generation to work in the discourse of the African diaspora are featured. These architects are conscious of performance typologies of opposition that have emerged from the slave-ship hold, plantation quarters, and urban "slum/ghetto" as they seek to define, interpret, and design African American art, architecture, and public space. In the second section, quotidian practices are rendered significant as expressions of culture, aesthetics, and political activism. The transformation of space is understood as an act of autonomy. Making African American spatial practices present is vital in this volume. To determine their absence, denial, or erasure manifests the lingering effects of slavery as part of the contemporary condition.