Come gather in Bronzeville for a two-part experience revisiting one of Chicago’s iconic public artworks and the movement it anchored. Key figures from the Black Arts Movement will lead a reading and interactive session followed by the Chicago debut of BAM!, a documentary reflecting on the international influence of the movement.

1–2:30pm CT | Fleeting Monuments for the Wall of Respect

The Wall of Respect was a work of public art foundational to Chicago’s legendary Black Arts Movement. Created in 1967 on Chicago’s South Side, it depicted Black leaders in music, literature, politics, and sports; and went on to spark a nationwide mural movement. In her book Fleeting Monuments for the Wall of Respect Art Institute professor Romi Crawford asks artists and writers to consider the legacy of the long-gone Wall, while creating new and impermanent ways to commemorate. Join Crawford, Darlene Blackburn, Thabiti Lewis, and Robert E. Paige for an interactive session about fleeting, yet memorable strategies for honoring history.

3:00–4:15 pm CT | BAM! A Documentary Screening on the Black Arts Movement

“It was Chicago that sustained the Black Arts Movement [BAM],” explains poet Angela Jackson in BAM!, a documentary by Thabiti Lewis and Pavithra Narayanan about the cultural, political, and artistic significance of the movement. BAM! celebrates the artists, musicians, writers, and organizers whose artistry and activism endures: through such Chicago institutions as Third World Press and The DuSable Museum of African American History, and contemporary art and scholarship. Join filmmaker Thabiti Lewis for the Chicago debut of his documentary.

This program is presented as part of Art Design Chicago Now, an initiative funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art that amplifies the voices of Chicago's diverse creatives, past and present, and explores the essential role they play in shaping the now. This program is presented in partnership with Chicago Architecture Biennial.