Artist and designer Nia Easley’s recently published artist book, “The Last Green Book” (22’) looks at Chicago-based South Side sites listed in the 1962 edition of the famed African American travel guide, “The Negro Motorist Green Book”, through careful photo documentation, observation, and extensive research. What used to be Black owned businesses and establishments, are now empty lots, vacant buildings or have been redeveloped.

Easley worked with photographer Maria Dunaevsky, who mainly works with photography and bookmaking. Her work examines themes of environmentalism, conservation, and impermanence within the Anthropocene.

This activation will offer a special opportunity to re-engage with 2 newly researched sites through the lens of re-imaging their potential, and the importance of site-specific memory in the Bronzeville community. Easley will guide participants through thoughtful narration and collaborative questioning about these spaces and their past lives, invoking the potential of what can be “seen” through what is now unseen, and resisting cultural amnesia of Black histories and the built environment. Participants will also have the opportunity to purchase copies of Easley’s “The Last Green Book”, and receive free postcards for a participatory writing activity.

A recommended reading list of books important to Easley’s research:

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights by Gretchen Sorin

Ghostly Matters: Haunting and the Sociological Imagination by Avery Gordon

Blacks by Gwendolyn Brooks (specifically the poem “In the Mecca”)

Too Much Midnight by Krista Franklin

Bone and Sinew of the Land by Anna Lisa Cox

SSCAC Archives and Collections Intern Victoria Sockwell will also curate a specially researched small library on the topics of the Great Migration, Black Mobility, and Bronzeville history to accompany this program and expand upon Easely’s research.

In partnership with Chicago Architecture Biennial

The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) is a non-profit organization dedicated to convening the world to explore innovative ideas and bring people together to collectively imagine and shape the future of design. CAB’s programs are committed to producing opportunities to explore and address timely global issues through the lens of architecture and design, emphasizing community input, sustainability, and equity. Free and open to the public, CAB stands as North America’s largest international survey of contemporary architecture and design.

Nia Easley is a Chicago-based artist, designer, researcher and educator. Those roles often intersect and overlap. She earned her MFA in Visual Communication Design and practices an art informed by methods of design production. This work engages the absurdity, violence, and beauty of contemporary American life, focusing on our shared histories and how they have shaped the current landscape. She has taught workshops at Lekòl Kominotè Matènwa, UIC (Gallery 400), and Yale University. Most recently she is a Lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

She also holds the role of contributing Editor/Curator for the EXIT section of Interactions (IX) Magazine. Her artist’s books can be found at the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, the University of Iowa, Northwestern University, DePaul University, and the Graphic Arts Collection at Princeton.

Victoria-Paige Jean Sockwell (literaryblkgirl) is a Chicago-based bibliophile, researcher, and writer. Her work is oriented toward restorative justice, healing, and liberation. She is also a proud researcher and educator in Sociology and Black Studies, focusing on the history and preservation of stories, relics, and symbols across the African diaspora.

After finishing her Bachelor’s at University of Illinios-Chicago, she hopes to continue her education at Dominican University in Library and Information Science. Her work can be found with Honey Pot Performance, Borderless Studios, Hyde Park Art Center, and The Silver Room.

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Tags: 3831 Activation: The Last Green Book, bronzeville, Chicago, Maria Dunaevsky, Nia Easley, South Side Community Art Center, Victoria Sockwell