Spatializing Memory: The Gun Violence Memorial Project

Tickets $20 HERE

Architecture is not neutral; it hurts or it heals. Hear about projects by Boston-based MASS Design Group that use architecture to draw attention to difficult issues like gun violence, the topic of the firm's major installation at the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial.

To acknowledge architecture's power is to acknowledge that the industries that erect buildings are accountable for social injustices and responsible for improving the lives of people by way of design. Hear MASS Design Senior Associate Jha D. Williams describe several recent projects that use architecture to reveal hidden narratives and offer alternatives to the systemic structures that perpetuate injustice. This event coincides with her firm’s exhibit at the Chicago Architecture Biennial, The Gun Violence Memorial Project.

MASS Design’s work has been widely praised. As just one example, the recently completed National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery Alabama, has already been featured in over 500 publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and 60 Minutes. Architecture critic Mark Lamster of the Dallas Morning News called the memorial, "the single greatest work of American architecture of the 21st century."

PROGRAM SPEAKER: JHA D. WILLIAMS

Jha D. Williams received her B.S. in Architecture from Northeastern University and M. Arch I at the University of Pennsylvania. After graduation she returned to her home city of Boston to continue curating and co-hosting her monthly open mic, "if you can Feel it, you can Speak it", and began working at Sasaki Associates, Inc. As a spoken word artist and event organizer, Williams believes there is pure art in speaking your own truth, and is dedicated to creating spaces for artists—particularly those who are of the LGTBQIA communities of color. In February of 2018, she joined MASS as a Senior Associate.