Franklin Sirmans on Meaningful Representation and Community Responsibility

In this week’s conversation, I speak with Sara Zewde, principal of Studio Zewde, the Harlem-based landscape architecture, urban design, and public art firm. Sara is Assistant Professor of Practice at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and is the recipient of a number of awards, including the Hebbert Award for Contribution to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT and the Silberburg Memorial Award for Urban Design. Sara was named the 2014 National Olmsted Scholar by the Landscape Architecture Foundation, a 2016 Artist-in-Residence at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and in 2018, was named to the National Trust for Historic Preservation's inaugural "40 Under 40" list. Most recently, she was named a 2020 United States Artists Fellow. We explore her voluminous and wide-ranging design methodology - a practice that’s powered by site interpretation, cultural narrative, and a dedication to the craft of construction. Zewde’s philosophy centers on shaping the spaces she designs to reflect and respect their psychological impact on those who will inhabit them.

In this episode, I speak with the Baltimore-born, Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist Derrick Adams. His work resides in the prestigious collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, the Whitney Museum of American Art among many others. We go deep into Adams’ interest in visual culture as a language - a tool to reshape cultural narratives and more urgently, reframe an empowered view of the Black experience in The United States. Adams’ work and interconnected way of thinking is central to The Sweet Flypaper podcast series and its focus on multidimensional vision and responsibility.

I spoke with curator, writer, art critic, and Perez Art Museum Miami’s (PAMM) director Franklin Sirmans about the importance of deep, layered cultural representation - one that goes beyond optics and into every fiber of his work. Previously Franklin served as department head and curator of contemporary art at LACMA, as well as the Artistic Director of the 2014 Prospect New Orleans biennial. He was also the curator of modern and contemporary art at the Menil Collection in Houston and before that a curatorial advisor at MoMA PS1 and a lecturer at Princeton University and Maryland Institute College of Art. He is the 2007 recipient of the David C. Driskell Prize presented by the High Museum. Prior to his curatorial career, Franklin was the U.S. Editor of Flash Art and Editor-in-Chief of ArtAsiaPacific magazines, Sirmans has written for several journals and newspapers on art and culture, including NYT, Art in America, ArtNews, VIBE, and Essence Magazine. For Sirmans, it’s about addressing the community at every level so that communities of color feel like they are being included authentically and seeing themselves represented and engaged from the work that hangs on the walls to the programming behind it.

In this episode, I speak with design legend Paola Antonelli, who has contributed her expertise to MoMA since 2014, serves as the Senior Curator of the Department of Architecture & Design and also Research and Development. We discuss her career and philosophy of design as power. For Antonelli, her “gift” as a creative is to lose herself in objects, in the process of understanding how they work, what’s behind them, and their purpose. Antonelli sees a responsibility in sharing this gift with the world to empower people to make better decisions and take control of their lives. She is the co-host of Design Emergency and received the Smithsonian Institute’s National Design Award in 2006, and in 2007 was named one of the “25 most incisive design visionaries” by Time Magazine.

She is a MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellow, and University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. In 2014 Willis received the NAACP Image Award for her co-authored book Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery (with Barbara Krauthamer) and in 2015 for the documentary Through a Lens Darkly, inspired by her book Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present. Willis is a creative hero of mine - not only for her own photography, but for her wide contributions to photo education, discourse and the cultural framing of photo history and visual literacy. We get to the heart of Willis’ work, inspirations, and the importance of capturing, retelling and representing the legacies of Black joy through photographic evidence and storytelling. 

In this episode, I speak with Dean Milton S.F. Curry about his life’s work and the importance – and civic duty – of architecture and design on giving shape and energy to cultural and community engagement. Curry, who is currently the Dean (and Professor) at the University of Southern California's School of Architecture has lived a life dedicated to architecture and design, but with a focus on its connection to empathy and social responsibility. Links for reference: Appendix JournalMonica Ponce de LeonAmanda WilliamsLauren HalseyDave AdjayeWalter HoodJohn Rawls

In this episode, I speak with award-winning activist, writer, and filmmaker dream hampton. We get into the influence of Black liberation legacies on dream’s work, the power and limitations of language to damage and elevate, and most importantly, how film can work as a tool to communicate people’s stories. We also address the importance of creating the right conditions to help those stories to be told thoughtfully, and with respect - two qualities that should always be at the forefront of communication and representation.  Links for reference: Arundhati RoyJohn LegendCritical Resistance

This week I reconnected with Signe Nielson, a landscape architect and founding principal at Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects in NYC. She is also a professor of urban design and landscape architecture at Pratt Institute and an active participant in New York City design policy and approvals. Her work focuses on the areas of green design, sustainability, and public space design. Nielsen has spent her career thinking about design and architecture as a means of telling stories and improving lives and the environment, and continually dedicates her work and practice building spaces that positively impact the environment and people who inhabit them. 

What a privilege it is to speak with interdisciplinary artist Mel Chin about his wide-ranging, often collaborative 40+ year practice. We get deep into many of Mel’s projects and what brings them all together - the balance of poetry and abstraction with urgent political ideas, and the importance of continuous creative evolution. We also get into some of Mel’s radical interventions on Melrose Place in the 90’s – keep an ear out for some nostalgia.

In this episode, I speak with Toronto-based Social scientist, professor, filmmaker and activist Dr. Ingrid Waldron. Dr. Waldron co-produced the 2019 film There's Something in the Water, based on her book of the same name. She most recently joined the humanities department at McMaster University, and is the new HOPE Chair in Peace and Health, she is also a professor in the university’s Gender and Social Justice program. We spoke about her work on interconnected relationships, and impacts of racial and socioeconomic inequality on health. Most importantly, we discuss Waldron’s push to address these problems through community research, the democratization of information, policy, legislation and activism. This episode was recorded in July of 2020, prior to Elliot Page’s coming out as transgender, and he is therefore referred to as Ellen Page and “she” within this interview. We are fully supportive of Elliot’s transition and use his correct pronouns since his announcement in December of 2020.Links for reference:There's Something In The Water (book)There's Something In The Water (film)C-230 BillKhayelitsha