After a year-and-a-half of planning and a push to launch during Black History Month, DMV-based mixed media artist Jabari Jefferson is redefining art history with the premiere of his first solo exhibition, “Sacred Spaces,” an homage to African American heritage with a taste of recreation.
Showcasing sustainable technology, cultural influence, and a large-scale community installation, the latest addition to Maryland’s Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum bridges history and innovation to propose a reimagined take on the breadth and ambiguity of the Black diaspora.
“You can and should take time to learn in school, but also it’s really important to learn from the people around you. Learning from your elders, learning from your peers, sometimes history is not always in books,” said museum exhibit manager Leslie Rose. “I think Jabari is often encouraging people to chase after information, and when they have this feeling that something is happening, something else is out there.”
Sacred Spaces debuts in a crucial time for African American history, as the future of education standards and landmark institutions, including the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, remain in limbo amid legislative efforts to dismantle Black history.
Now on display through Dec. 31, Jefferson applauded the opportunity to merge his passion for Black studies with the love of his craft, offering a counter approach in a moment he deemed most proficient.
“You’re seeing people…taking the reins and writing history as they see fit, and so it’s a wonderful time for all people to be able to take their interpretation of history…and explore it,” he told The Informer, “and save it in their minds and hearts as they see fit.”
Sacred Spaces: A Tribute to the DMV
For Jefferson, a native Washingtonian, the process of curating the various pieces called for spiritual guidance and inspiration across various sectors— from pop culture references and studied interpretations, to African proverbs and hands-on contributions from local residents.
The three-story exhibit presents a collection of oil paintings, sculptures, and nearly 20-foot public installations, fusing sustainable practices and technologies such as augmented reality and illusive stained glass, which Jefferson attributed to ancestral origins.
By design, much of the exhibition combines a broad take on African American culture with staples of the DMV.
One particular piece touted at the exhibit’s opening, during a “Meet Me in the Gallery” series with Martina Dodd, curator of Collections and Exhibitions, shone a young Harriet Tubman as British actress and singer Cynthia Erivo, who portrayed the renowned abolitionist in the 2019 biopic “Harriet.”
Jefferson shared his interpretation of Tubman as one of beauty in juxtaposition to her legacy of strength. His intent to color the artifactual piece with a feminine touch centered Erivo as a reflection of Tubman’s youth, surrounded in armor regalia with a “high priest” look as a nod to the freedom fighter’s resilience.
“And just like that, [I’m] rewriting history,” Jefferson said, emphasizing the difference between “making things up” and simply reviving documented truths. “It’s not the [historic figure] that needs to change, it’s the reimagination of that person that may need to be updated and refreshed. And so that’s where I come in.”
A masteract in mixed media, “Sacred Spaces” leverages salvaged materials such as textile, books, clothing, found objects and other artifacts to illustrate luminosity and vitalize the stories of everyday people, objects, and histories – which Dodd and Rose chalked up to an exemplar of “good art.”
“History is alive. [It’s] not something that is only in the past, it’s something that we’re constantly being influenced by,” Rose told The Informer. “Especially the work that Jabari is addressing…so much of it is understudied, so much of it deserves a continual conversation.”
Similarly, Dodd highlighted the exhibit as a way to challenge notions of identification and provoke a conversation on the power and responsibility of representation.
Sculpted tributes to Maryland natives like Tubman and Benjamin Banneker, revered in his piece as a legend of Washington, honored the trailblazers’ legacies with literal scraps of their home state: derived soil from different parts of Maryland and clothes thrifted and gifted locally.
Meanwhile, the community-wide installations of the first floor captured the essence of African American culture evident throughout the DMV and beyond, from monumental influencers in the realms of sports and entertainment, to showcasing Black individuals at several Metro stops in the nation’s capital.
In a post-launch interview with The Informer, Dodd addressed the need to protect cultural institutions as a space where Black stories can thrive with each generation, applauding Jefferson and contemporary artists alike for using art as an intercultural tool for preservation.
“We’re not only the namesakes of these individuals, but we also are collectors of their stories, and these range from artworks made in honor of these people,” said the museum curator. “We want to make sure that we are set up for those who are here after us, that they can add context around what we’re doing. We’re making new history for everyone to interact with.”
Preserving Black History Through the Next Class of ‘Born Artists‘
At the Feb. 8 opening, Jefferson spotlighted one of his favorite pieces entitled “Born Artist,” a collaborative effort based on a photograph taken years before of a former student on the cusp of becoming an art prodigy.
The piece first came to life during Jefferson’s previous residency in Bed-Stuy, New York, where he enlisted the help of his then-8-year-old “gallery daughter” to encapsulate a child’s imagination in the body of work. For Jeffson, the muse was the limitless potential of youth creatives.
“I wanted to capture the idea that we live in a renaissance time in which young children, especially in Black communities, get to pursue art with [fewer] obstacles and oppositions because of artists everywhere…proving that you can achieve art and do fantastic things in it,” he told The Informer.
Through field trips, community-based workshops, and a partnership with the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Jefferson has created a space where the future molders of history can thrive, even opting to showcase student contributions in several of the sacred pieces donning through the year’s end.
Dodd and Jefferson spoke to the symbolism of the Sankofa bird present in one installation, a nod to the potent African proverb of moving forward by looking back.
Being that Sankofas are the only birds that look backwards to fly forward, the symbol was both fitting and reflective of a broader mission to build legacies through the connective stories of Black ancestry. By empowering youth to “continue the work,” Dodd said there is a future where African American history and culture thrives, but it starts with recognizing “today’s present as tomorrow’s archive.”
“Thinking about what we are doing today and how we’re documenting that is going to live on after we leave,” Dodd told The Informer. “We hope that people learn from the exhibit and then get inspired to start thinking about what is in their own personal archive that they want to preserve and keep.”
Meanwhile, Jefferson invites museum goers to delve into their own self-discoveries within the walls of “Sacred Spaces.” He noted his gratitude for the inquisitive attendees searching for something deep just as much as the ones simply enjoying the beauty of the work, humbled to have an impact in either capacity.
“With all that’s going on in the world, it’s cool to look at it from the perspective of, ‘Man, what if you didn’t do this?’ All these wonderful smiles and fit moments, they just wouldn’t have happened,” he told The Informer. “[‘Sacred Spaces’] taught me that artwork is really worth it, not just for yourself, but just for the service. It’s bigger than anyone, and it made me grateful that I followed through.”
