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Dear Mazie, : sanctuary, speculation, and sky / edited by Amber Esseiva.

Fine Arts Library NA737.M47 A4 2026
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Format:
Book
Contributor:
Esseiva, Amber, curator, editor, interviewer.
Admassu, Emanuel, contributor.
Wood, Jen, contributor.
Gooden, Mario, contributor.
Wilson, Mabel (Mabel O.), contributor.
Wilkins, Craig L., 1961- contributor.
Weston, Charisse Pearlina, contributor.
Perry, Regenia, interviewee.
Powell, Grady W., Sr. (Grady Wilson), 1932- interviewee.
Kiwanga, Kapwani, 1978- artist.
Lucien, Abigail, artist.
Self, Tschabalala, 1990- artist.
Smith, Cauleen, artist.
Gumbs, Alexis Pauline, 1982- contributor.
Peters, Shani, 1981- contributor.
Stevens, Laila AnnMarie, contributor.
Black School (New York, N.Y.)
Institute for Contemporary Art (Richmond, Va.), organizer, hosting institution.
California African-American Museum, hosting institution.
Center for Art, Research and Alliances, publisher.
Language:
English
Subjects (All):
Meredith, Amaza Lee, 1895-1984--Exhibitions.
Meredith, Amaza Lee.
Meredith, Amaza Lee, 1895-1984--Archives.
African American women architects--Exhibitions.
African American women architects.
Genre:
exhibition catalogs.
Exhibition catalogs.
Physical Description:
340 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), facsimiles, plans, portraits ; 25 cm
Distribution:
New York, NY : ARTBOOK | D.A.P
Other Title:
Sanctuary, speculation, and sky
Place of Publication:
New York, NY : Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) ; Richmond, VA : Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University (ICA at VCU), [2026]
Summary:
"This is an experimental illustrated reader exploring the work and legacy of American architect, educator and artist Amaza Lee Meredith (1895–1984), a trailblazer who was the first known Black queer woman to practice as an architect in the United States. This book takes Meredith's expansive letter-writing practice as a conceptual framework for epistolary responses in the present, plotting Meredith's life and work within themes of placemaking, gender, sexuality and Black love, with a focus on how she built sanctuaries (homes, institutions and communities) for herself and other people of color to foster rigorous artistic pursuit, free of persecution. The book features previously unpublished photos, blueprints, letters and scrapbooks from Meredith's archives and an annotated timeline of her life and work. Essays from architectural scholars and oral histories with former students, colleagues and friends explore her legacy in public education, the arts, modernist architecture and the built environment in the context of school desegregation, civil rights, and land and property rights. A diverse group of contemporary artists also respond to Meredith's legacy"--ARTBOOK | D.A.P. website (viewed June 18, 2026). https://www.artbook.com/9781954939158.html
Contents:
Director's foreword / Jessica Bell Brown
Sanctuary, speculation, sky / Amber Esseiva
AD—WO, in conversation with Amber Esseiva
Dear Mazie, exhibition
Archival timeline
Black box
There is no such things as African American Architecture / Mario Gooden
Dear M____, / Mabel O. Wilson
Commissions
A love supreme / Craig Wilkins
How to Construct an Interior / Charisse Pearlina Weston
Oral histories
Joel Howard
Reverand Grady Powell
Regenia Perry
Steve Williams
Reprints
Sag Harbor / Colson Whitehead
Lines to a nasturtium / Anne Spencer
Artists
Kapwani Kiwanga
Abigail Lucien
Tschabalala Self
Cauleen Smith
The Black School, in conversation with Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo
It's all out of my arms : our collective mouth is speaking
Acknowledgements.
Notes:
"Published by the Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) and the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University (ICA at VCU) on the occasion of the exhibition, Dear Mazie, curated by Amber Esseiva, organized by the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond (September 6, 2024-March 9,2025), and which traveled to the Contemporary (sic) African American Museum, Los Angeles, California (September 9, 2025-March 1, 2026)"--Colophon.
Pages 191-194 are printed on 1 folded sheet inserted.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN:
9781954939158
1954939159
OCLC:
1557403633

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