Friday, May 27, 2022

Sekou Cooke: 15-81
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

"15-81" presents architect and urban designer Sekou Cooke's project "We Outchea: Hip-Hop Fabrications and Public Space" alongside documents relating to the 15th Ward in Syracuse. Commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art in 2021 as part of their exhibition "Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America," "We Outchea" focuses on the legacy of placement and displacement of Black residents in Syracuse and considers various events in the city's history — the razing of the historic 15th Ward, the building of multiple public housing projects, and the construction of Interstate 81 — while simultaneously critiquing recent proposals to replace low-income communities with mixed-income housing. By contextualizing the We Outchea project with photographs and ephemera that tell the story of the once vibrant 15th Ward, Cooke points to a post I-81 Syracuse future of entrepreneurship and innovation.