A Conversation About Landscapes and Preservation as Justice (PastForward 2021)
Channel: National Trust for Historic Preservation
Date: 2021-11-22

From PastForward Online 2021

Join a dynamic conversation with landscape designer, MacArthur Fellow, and public artist Walter Hood and Brent Leggs, executive director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, about the importance of preserving Black landscapes that make visible African American struggle and achievement. From the conservation of sites of enslavement, freedman villages, segregated cities, or memorials of remembrance like cemeteries and parks, African Americans have and continue to shape our shared American landscape. Revealing Black landscapes and their imbued stories empower all Americans to see the world through a new lens and in different ways, so that America’s past can be fully understood and a more inclusive future envisioned.

Hood creates dynamic urban spaces that resonate with and enrich the lives of current residents while also honoring communal histories as evidenced by his bold vision for the iconic Tidal Basin in Washington, DC. Hear this national leader discuss his commitment to design ecologically sustainable public spaces that empower marginalized communities. Discover how Hood engages with community members to tease out social histories as well as current residents’ shared patterns of use and aspirations for a place. Conference attendees are encouraged to read the 2020 publication titled Black Landscapes Matter edited by Walter Hood and Grace Mitchell Tada which “assembles a group of notable landscape architecture and planning professionals and scholars to probe how race, memory, and meaning intersect in the American landscape."

Walter Hood is the Creative Director and Founder of Hood Design Studio in Oakland, California and the David K. Woo Chair and the Professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at the University of California, Berkeley.

Brent Leggs, senior vice president and executive director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund – the largest preservation campaign in U.S. History on behalf of historic African American places.