Client: City of Houston, Mayors Office of Cultural Affairs

Overview

“The Meditative Space” celebrates American Congresswoman Barbara Jordan as a contemporary tribute to the life and legacy of the civic leader and political pioneer. Created by Houston-natives and conceptual artists Charisse Pearlina Weston and Jamal Cyrus, the formal structure of the artwork takes its shape from the Adinkra symbol “sepow”, which represents justice and authority – a symbolic nod to Jordan’s lifelong dedication to civil rights and law for the betterment of society.

For this artwork, free-standing glass panels feature intricate photographic and text-based collages from archival materials and include portraits and snapshots from Jordan’s life, handwritten excerpts from her most iconic speeches, and maps of Houston’s Historic Fourth and Fifth Wards — the landscape of Jordan’s formative years.

Making use of source materials culled from the archives of the Gregory School Library and The Barbara C. Jordan Archive at Texas Southern University and geometric motifs derived from old maps of the neighborhoods that shaped Jordan, this artwork conveys not only the prowess and commanding voice of Jordan, the politician, lawyer, professor, and public figure, but it also makes legible the lesser-known image of Jordan as a woman of deep compassion and tremendous conviction.

Goals

In 2019, the City of Houston released a national call for artists to propose concepts for the city’s first permanent, stand-alone, outdoor artwork commemorating the life and legacy of the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan – to be sited at the historic African American Library at the Gregory School, a Special Collections archive and facility managed by the Houston Public Library system.

Before becoming Houston’s African American Library at the Gregory School, one of approximately five public African American libraries in the United States preserving, celebrating, and promoting black culture and history, the historic facility hosting this artwork was home to Houston’s first African American public elementary school. Founded in 1870, the Gregory Institute represented an unprecedented community effort at combating post-Civil War racial and educational oppression. The Gregory Institute played an important role in the success of Freedmen’s Town, a small settlement of the first one thousand freed slaves after the Civil War’s end, now Houston’s oldest established African American neighborhood.

Through the addition of new artwork, the location honors Congresswoman Jordan’s dedication to public service, racial equity, social justice, and the fulfillment of American ideals.

Process

MOCA’s Civic Art Program, in collaboration with the Houston Public Library (HPL), requested the submission of qualifications from a nationwide search for artists or artist teams to design, fabricate, and install an outdoor artwork to magnify the legacy of the esteemed educator and civic leader Barbara Jordan.

A selection panel of City department, community, and art world representatives was assembled by Houston Arts Alliance to review artist qualifications and to recommend concepts for this project.

Panelists included artist Leamon Green, curators Rebecca Matalon, Kanitra Fletcher, Danielle Burns Wilson from the Houston Public Library, and then-director of the Historic Freedmen’s Town Conservancy, Zion Escobar.

With input from the Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs and the Houston Public Library, artists Jamal Cyrus and Charisse Weston developed the concept and delivered the commemorative artwork for the historic site.

Additional Information

About the Artists: Charisse Pearlina Weston is a conceptual artist and writer whose practice is grounded in a deep material investigation of poetics and the autobiographical in the service of black people. Jamal Cyrus’s expansive multi-disciplinary practice explores the evolution of African American identity within Black political movements and the African diaspora.