Salon Series: (Black) Sexuality and Space

Tuesday, May 17th, 2016

7:00 – 9:00 PM

97 Kenmare Street, New York

With Mario Gooden, Mabel Wilson, and Meredith TenHoor

Azurest South is a little known modernist house by Amaza Lee Meredith, an untrained black woman architect practicing in Virginia from the 1920s onward. The house, designed by Meredith for herself and her partner, stood radically apart from its surroundings.

Salon Series: (Black) Sexuality and Space brings together Mario Gooden, Mabel Wilson, and Meredith TenHoor to discuss the the contemporary resonance of Azurest South, which presents complex negotiations regarding the notions of public and private space and reworks the masculinist guises of modernism.

Prompted by the lines of inquiry opened by Mario Gooden in his newly-released Dark Space: Architecture, Representation, Black Identity, this Salon Series will discuss architecture, representation, gender, and race as it relates to Azurest South. Placing the house within the context of projects such as Adolf Loos’s House for Josephine Baker, participants will explore how the Azurest South relies on particular tropes and notions of identity to communicate its significance. Participants will question the implications of the project, and ask how it might inform future approaches to spatial practice that address gender and race.

Copies of Dark Space: Architecture, Representation, Black Identity will be available for purchase at the event.

This event is free and open to the public, with seating on a first come, first served basis. Storefront members receive reserved seating. If you are a member and would like to reserve a seat, you can RSVP here. If you would like to become a Storefront member, please see here.

About the Salon Series

The Salon Series is a monthly intimate and informal gathering at Storefront’s gallery to promote dialogues that connect art and architecture to broader contemporary issues. These facilitated discussions bring together Storefront’s members, network, and community to discuss and dissect the role of culture in the most recent and relevant public debates.

About the Book

Dark Space: Architecture, Representation, Black Identity is as collection of essays by architect Mario Gooden that investigates the construction of African American identity and representation through the medium of architecture. Comprised of five texts, Dark Spacemoves between history, theory, and criticism to explore a discourse of critical spatial practice involved in the constant reshaping of African Diaspora. Within his discourse, Gooden presents series of questions that interrogate and illuminate alternative narratives of “African American architecture,” to reveal compelling methods of translating the philosophical idea of the African Diaspora experience into space.