Partners for Historical Justice

Partners for Historical Justice plans to expand its “Re-envisioning Blackness” project — further developing co-curricular materials for engaging students and the public with Black-themed Public art in DC. Our guides to close looking, hosted on the Tour de Force blog site, will better emphasize art works in Wards Seven and Eight, primarily on the East Side of the Anacostia River. We are mindful of the old saying in the DC “You cross the river, the doors close,” and that local artists have for decades sought to challenge this stereotype and celebrate local community resilience and creativity. Potential works include the well beloved 1959 “Chair,” at the intersection of Martin Luther King Avenue and V Street S.E., which is noteworthy for being one of the few architectural elements in Ward 8 to escape damage during the 1968 insurrection that followed the assassination of Dr King; Cheryl Foster’s mural, “Shooting for the Star..not each other.” ; Martha Jackson Davis’s mosaic River Spirits of the Anacostia; Anne Allardyce-Tully’s East of the River Connections, at the Congress Heights Metro Station (13th St & Alabama Ave SE). We would also create commentaries on the new set of murals at the Capital Hill Boys Club Intergenerational Gallery, which foreground the artistic visions of local Black women. In Ward Seven, we could include "Starburst Intersection: Cornerstones of History, “a terrazzo wall mural by artist Steven Weitzman; ”Dancing in My Head" at the African Heritage Center. We do hope to encourage the Capital Hills Boy Club and other local community partners to submit separate proposals perhaps to help fund local teenage and young adult consultants to create instagram and Tik Tok short videos responding to the works of art in the Re-envisioning Blackness guide.