Black Design: The Power of Joy

(Above image: Pieces featured above are King Houndekpinkou's Jumbo Bubble Tea Doll (far right) created in 2024 and Zizipho Poswa's Mam'uNoSekshin (center) created in 2023. Image courtesy of MoAD)

Design has the power to shape lives and tell stories. What story does Black design tell? One of resilience, joy, nuance, and beauty. These themes are on full display at the Museum of the African Diaspora’s (MoAD) first-ever design exhibit, "Liberatory Living: Protective Interiors and Radical Black Joy," which runs through early March. Curated by Key Jo Lee, the museum’s chief of curatorial affairs and public programs, the exhibition explores Black spaces in a literal and metaphorical sense, examining the beauty of Black culture and design through a lens of rest and joy.

Trauma is not the only legacy of Black people.

Key Jo Lee

Lee selected 16 artists representing 10 countries and seven states to showcase their talent, the importance of Black sovereign spaces and the complexities of Black identity. The exhibit includes colorful furnishings, lighting, wallcoverings, and ceramics that reflect unique artistic points of view and express a joy that cannot be dampened by the painful realities of history.

While refining the themes and purpose behind the exhibit, Lee considered the legacy of Black interiors and was inspired by the writings of Black feminist writer bell hooks and poet and scholar Elizabeth Alexander. An essay from hooks, "Homeplace: A Site of Resistance" explores home as a space where one could feel affirmed, restored, and reconnected to their humanity despite racism, sexism, segregation, poverty, and other hardships. Specifically, hooks’ essay focuses on how Black women created homes as a place where Black people could thrive in a world that denied them rest or freedom.

Elizabeth Alexander’s collection of essays, The Black Interior, explores Black life and creativity beyond stereotypes and limitations; she writes of the “black interior” as a “metaphysical space” black people can tap into their power and vast imagination, and explores this space through paintings, literature, film, and other media. These ideas from hooks and Alexanders prompted Lee to think of how she could create an exhibit that reflects spaces where Black beauty thrives, Black joy is celebrated, and where Black people can simply rest.

“Black people have been asked to reveal our underbelly again and again. In response to that, I've seen Black communities try to rally, thinking of where are we going to go to take more action? Where are we going to get busy? Trauma is not the only legacy of Black people.” Lee said. “We are so busy and we’re always moving, so I started to think about where we could go to actually rest, to gather, and what it would be like to address the state of things not from a place of urgency and lack but from a place of fullness and rest.”

Key Jo Lee candid1 — Lee found her power in curation and enjoys crafting the experiences of visitors to give them a memorable and multi-sensory experience. Image courtesy of MoAD

Key Jo Lee candid2 — Lee joins artists Cheryl R. Riley to celebrate her pieces being featured in "Liberatory Living." Image courtesy of Cheryl Riley

"Liberatory Living" may be MoAD’s first exhibition featuring designers, but Lee has always been fascinated by interiors. Growing up, Lee redesigned her room every six months and loved watching her mother decorate their home; she noticed a connection between design and art. For her, both tell a story that users, or viewers, can personally experience. Intrigued by these mediums, Lee studied art history at Douglas College at Rutgers University and went on to get her master’s degree from Yale University in art history and African-American studies. Throughout her education, she gained expertise in American art, performance historiography, African-American literature, and transnational art. At one point, she considered becoming an artist herself, but connections at museums and galleries opened her eyes to the world of curation. She learned that as curator you don't only get to receive the knowledge in the world but you get to craft it.

Every piece and every artist featured in the exhibit reinforces the idea that the Black experience is not monolithic, that ideas about beauty and joy are specific — but can get at something universal. One piece that encapsulates this is the Pews sofa by interdisciplinary artist and former NFL player Michael Bennett. Pews was inspired by Bennett’s experience growing up in Louisiana and going to church on Sundays, feeling that Louisiana heat while surrounded by other churchgoers waving fans, shoulder to shoulder on small church pews.

To Lee’s surprise, visitors would sit on the sofa and engage in conversation about how the exhibition is building community, right before her eyes.

Michael Bennett Pews image 3 1 — *Pews* by artist and designer Michael Bennett, created in 2023.

Image courtesy of William Stuart.

“Coming down to the gallery and seeing people just sitting on this sofa chatting was intriguing. It’s not only about sitting on this piece of furniture and interpreting it directly, but it’s more about how you feel in the space and how it gives you a sense of belonging,” explained Lee.

Even though visitors may never have visited a Louisiana church on a sweltering Sunday, they could tap into Bennett’s experience, and create communal connections of their own.

Many other pieces in the exhibition stirred feelings of joy, belonging, and wonder in visitors. One example: The Constellation Bed by artist and furniture designer Cheryl R. Riley, which she originally designed in 1993 for the late actor Robin Williams’ daughter, Zelda. The bed features a layout of half spheres on maple wood with 24 karat gold leaf depicting Zelda’s sun sign, Leo, while the footboard depicts her moon sign, Cancer. Like Riley, Zelda loves books, so Riley designed the footboard with magnifying lenses that, when Zelda looked through them, would make her bookshelf appear larger.

Cheryl Riley constellationbed — Cheryl Riley, Constellation Bed, created in 1993. Image courtesy of MoAD

Another one of Riley’s pieces displayed in the exhibit is the Copper Pennies side table. For the design, Riley used pure copper pennies minted before 1971 that she had collected over the years. These pennies were pressed into ovals and then placed in solutions that formed unique coatings of celadon, brown, and black, creating a random pattern of hues. The table is heavy, so the copper pipe legs were fitted with casters, making it easier to move. While working on this piece with fellow creators Randy Comer and Pamela Pastrana, Riley felt a sense of liberation.

“The act of creating a one-of-a-kind, custom work of functional art is extremely liberating,” said Riley, who grew up in the South during the Civil Rights era and developed her passion for design through her grandfather, a carpenter and contractor, and her mother who, was an artist in the 1940s and ’50s.

Cheryl riley pennies table — Copper Pennies table by Cheryl R. Riley, 1993.

Image courtesy of MoAD

“I am free to be all I see, am influenced by, intrigued by, delighted by, fearful of, and am celebrating. It is ‘Liberatory Living’ at its purest form,” Riley added. "This exhibit exemplifies how I live my life and what I try to encourage in young people I mentor and the artists I have promoted. I am honored and thrilled to be included."

"Liberatory Living" freed Riley to express her creativity, influences, aptitudes, and ideas without restrictions other than dimensions, function, and budget. She said she was very proud to be a part of something that affirmed her work and lived experience.

This exhibit exemplifies how I live my life and what I try to encourage in young people I mentor and the artists I have promoted. I am honored and thrilled to be included.

Cheryl R. Riley

Similarly, Norman Teague, founder and lead designer of Norman Teague Design Studios, who is also featured in the exhibit, considered how to channel and amplify the idea of liberation. The Chicago-based designer, maker, and educator submitted two pieces to the exhibition, one being his Sinmi Stool and the other was the Cabinet of Curiosities. (Unfortunately, the Cabinet of Curiosities was too large to fit through MoAD’s doors). Sinmi Stool, the bentwood rocking stool represents Teague’s connection to his African heritage; “sinmi” in the Yoruba language, spoken in West Africa, means to “relax.” He uses this stool design to reflect informal ways of relaxing, like leaning, slouching, or straddling, that people exhibit when they feel at ease.

"When it comes to a lot of the pieces that I make, I am always thinking about conversational comfort. How is it sitting in a room and possibly standing out?" he explains, "So, I look at these pieces as items that people might feel close to and connected to."

Norman Teague HS option2 — Artist and desiger Norman Teague

Normanteague sinmistool MOAD — *Sinmi Stool* by Norman Teague, 2012. Image courtesy of MoAD

Teague sees this exhibit as a means of “empowering Black people. It’s education, it’s setting a place in history that says there were Black people here. It’s a celebration of unification.” To him, this exhibition can be used as an educational tool to show students examples of how Black people live and approach design, and to counter the lack of historical teaching around Black makers.

When it comes to a lot of the pieces that I make, I am always thinking about conversational comfort. How is it sitting in a room and possibly standing out? So, I look at these pieces as items that people might feel close to and connected to.

Norman Teague

Lee reports that the exhibition, which opened last fall, continues to strike a chord with visitors from various racial and cultural backgrounds, creating a collective experience that bridges differences. As told by Lee, one visitor described feeling, “uplifted, inspired and educated by the objects, materials and written information. I found myself on a journey to the past and the future. I want to know more and be a more understanding and compassionate human being.”

One reaction in particular stands out in Lee’s memory. A visitor said the exhibit was “so rich with texture, color, depth, feeling and love, just like every Black and African diasporic person I know. While I can’t know what it’s like to be Black, I admire and honor sacred Black interiors, and I’m so lucky to bear witness to such depth of care and resistance.”