Black Future Newsstand exhibit has sneak peek at Africa Center
Tomorrow’s Black Future Newsstand preview looks ahead—both for the upcoming weekend installation and how Black media would look in a world with reparations. The sneak peek takes place on Tuesday, June 13, at the Africa Center in East Harlem before going on display at the Schomburg Center Literary Festival this Saturday.
The interactive exhibit imagines what “media that loves Black people look, feel, sound, and taste like in a future where reparations are real” to usher in this year’s Juneteenth celebration. Originally a hashtag conversation, the concept developed into a 3D project via collaboration between the Black Thought Project and Media 2070.
“We envision a world that centers [on] Blackness, which means that the experiences, perspectives and precious lives of Black folx are protected, witnessed, and honored,” said Black Thought Project creator Alicia Walters. “The Black Future Newsstand invites Black folx to not only imagine a media that loves us but to step inside it, pick it up, read it, and also create it.”
“Media reparations will create the conditions for all kinds of justice,” said Media 2070 co-creator Collette Watson. “A critical aspect of media reparations is Black people owning and controlling our stories from ideation through publication. This newsstand is a portal to that future and a chance to begin moving toward it now.”
Featured are a myriad of Black artists and reporters, including the Amsterdam News, which is one of the partnering publications featured in the installation, with investigative editor Damaso Reyes credited as a co-creator.
“This project was an incredible opportunity for Black creators to bring into being a future that is more justice-driven,” said Reyes. “It also gave us the opportunity to share our rich archive to show the connections between the past, present, and future of Black liberation.”
The preview is part of the Museum Mile Festival, which ropes off 30 blocks uptown on Fifth Avenue and offers free admission to other partnering institutions, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim. It runs from 6–10 p.m. on June 12 at the Africa Center (1280 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10029).
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member and writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visitinghttps://bit.ly/amnews1.
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