Mecca in Memory: Public Premiere
@ S. R. Crown Hall (IIT)
3360 S State St, Chicago, IL 60616
Opening Saturday, August 9th, from 1:30PM - 6PM
Join Floating Museum for Mecca in Memory: Public Premiere, a multimedia ceremony debuting our new Floating Monument, for Mecca, which honors the erased history of the Mecca Flats apartment building, once a vibrant center of Black life in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood.
The ceremony unfolds at Illinois Tech College of Architecture’s Crown Hall, the site where Mecca Flats once stood, drawing from the blues processional tradition to weave together archival reflection, architectural presence, sound, and spoken memory. It includes a ceremonial inflate of for Mecca, followed by a live musical procession led by Corey Wilkes. This shared ritual serves as both reverence and resistance—a call to remember, reclaim, and reimagine.
Following the performance, Lead Archivist Skyla Hearn will moderate a lively yet critical conversation titled But They’re Still in Here in the Archival Evidence featuring for Mecca archival research fellows, Tiffany Johnson and Christian Reeder, in a kitchen-table style discussion with Bronzeville Historical Society Founder and Executive Director, Sherry Williams and Executive Director of the Tulane University History Project, Dr. Marcia Walker-McWilliams. The conversation will reflect on a person-centered approach to engaging historically rich objects and the research process behind for Mecca, as an historic activation.
Come witness this act of public memory and join us in honoring the past while imagining new futures.
Additional Details
– Food and refreshments provided by Bronzeville Winery
– All ages welcome
– Free and open to the public
Official Website
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Tags: Andrew Schachman, avery r. young, bronzeville, christian reeder, Corey Wilkes, Dr. Marcia Walker-McWilliams, Faheem Majeed, Floating Museum, jeremiah hulsebos-spofford, Sherry Williams, Skyla Hearn, Tiffany Johnson
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