The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University explored the intersection of Black identity and architectural design on Nov. 15 in a panel discussion about its "Dear Mazie" exhibition, honoring Amaza Lee Meredith, the first known Black woman architect during the Jim Crow era.

The panel, titled “Black Architecture Panel: Critical Perspectives on Black Spatial Thinking,” featured a range of voices including architect and author Mario Gooden, architect Emanuel Admassu of AD–WO, Columbia University architectural historian Mabel Wilson, Shockoe Institute President and CEO Marland Buckner, and Haitian-American artist Abigail Lucien. Together, they explored the themes of Black identity, history and artistic expression as reflected in Meredith’s legacy and the exhibit's design.

Curated by ICA Associate Art Curator Amber Esseiva, the exhibit, on display through March 9, 2025, examines Meredith’s life and work through archival materials and interpretive responses. Esseiva began researching Meredith’s life in 2020, meticulously reviewing more than 5,000 items in the Virginia State University archives over four years.

“How do you turn a life into an exhibition, especially one as layered as Amaza’s?” Esseiva said. “[The architects, artists, and designers] were given a simple yet complex prompt. They took this exhibition as a letter. What would you want to say to her, and how would you speak back to her?”

The panel opened with Gooden’s presentation, which incorporated elements from his book, “Dark Spaces.” His analysis blended images of basketball players, theatrical contemporary dancing and suburban landscapes to explore the cultural and political dimensions of Black identity through architecture.

“The intersection of architecture and Black American life does not simply express the static conditions of ethnic identity,” Gooden said. “As a cultural practice, architecture must interpret and translate the historical, social and political context of a place and how one comes to be in terms of that place.”

Gooden also stressed that architecture stands apart from other cultural productions like music or art. “Architecture cannot be essentialized to race or racial representations,” he said.

Admassu elaborated on his approach to designing the exhibition alongside his colleague, Jen Wood. They used Meredith’s love for bold colors as a starting point, incorporating elements from her notes and scrapbooks to reflect her life as a Black woman navigating the 20th century.

“It helped us understand how exhibition design could be a generous effort of removing oneself from the scene,” Admassu said. “We started sketching out Pantone approximations of the colors described in [Meredith’s] notes.”

The discussion concluded with reflections on the future of Black architecture and its increasing prominence in cultural discourse.

“I see so many new faces from the discipline of architecture, which is a joy and a pleasure to have,” Esseiva said. “The connections we continue to make throughout the run of [‘Dear Mazie’] are where I learn things about a field that wasn’t familiar to me.”