THE BLOCK (2020)
ARCH 4010 | FALL 2020
GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK
PROF ELGIN CLECKLEY
The Block (2020) is an active retelling of African American history, in which the spatialized and immersive reconstruction of Romare Bearden’s “The Block” (1971) assembles experiences from various American cities, transcending time within a single Harlem Block composition. Visitors play the roles of spectators, subjects within collaged spaces of Isabelle Wilkerson’s “The Warmth of Other Suns”, and even the artist themselves, empathizing with the daily life experiences and emotions of individual times, places, and people of the Great Migration while unveiling and celebrating the shared realities throughout.