We went to the Black Space Rent Party in the Great Hall of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library.
This event drew inspiration from house-rent parties that flourished in Black neighborhoods during the '20s, '30s and '40s. It's an art exhibition by Holly Bass 360's Holly Bass, whom we snapped with DC Public Library Foundation executive director Linnea Hegarty.
Black Space is a tiny house in the shape of the District, which has been a center of Black culture since the early 1900s. Visitors will be invited to share their DC memories with the artist and create collaborative responses – photographs, poems, sketches and oral histories – which will be catalogued and displayed in the house. Here, educators Mia Ballard and Preshona Ghose.
Black Space is the cornerstone exhibition for DC Public Library’s Black History Month celebration, on display until Feb. 26. Here, St. Stephen's & St. Agnes teacher Elizabeth Peckham and Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Care physician Dana Mueller.
The party featured a dance performance, informal games of bones (dominoes) and spades, and a special music mix by DJ RBI, who's flanked by The General Store chief strategist Seshat Walker and Sojournals’ Kelli Anderson.
