The African Ancestors Garden: History and Memory at the International African American Museum

The International African American Museum, which opened in Charleston, SC, in the spring of 2023, is at the center of Hood’s (landscape architecture, environmental planning, and urban design, Univ. of California, Berkeley; Blues & Jazz Landscape Improvisations) work interrogating the complexities of race, history, and remembering. Through poignant essays and gorgeous yet haunting photographs, the book illuminates the history and import of this place—Gadsden’s Wharf, one of the country’s busiest ports, where enslaved people were bought and sold. Essays by scholars and architectural design professionals guide readers through this museum’s grounds, featuring excavated building sites, sculptures, markings, installations, and plantings from the west coast of Africa, all crafted to prompt reckoning and reflection. These spaces seek to bring the contributions of Black ancestors into the light; as Michael Allen, an educational specialist with the National Park Service, notes in his essay “Hidden in Plain Sight,” public institutions and historical sites often omit the history of African Americans and African culture from the public record.

[CORRECTION: An old version of this review was accidentally published; it has been replaced with a new version.]