Baltimore native brings story of Black resilience and joy during desegregation to site of the March on Washington

Nearly 60 years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. declared he had a dream, one that Baltimore-born artist Derrick Adams says has yet to be fully realized.

Adams is one of six artists who crafted pieces for “Beyond Granite: Pulling Together,” advertised as the first curated outdoor exhibition in the history of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The exhibition runs until Sept. 18.

Teresa Durkin, executive vice president of the Trust for the National Mall, said the selected artists were asked to answer a simple prompt: “What stories remain untold on the National Mall?”

Adams, 53, responded with America’s Playground: DC, an interactive sculpture of a functioning playground split by a photographic image from the District of Columbia Public Library’s archives that captures the previously all-white Edgewood Park days after the city’s schools and playgrounds were desegregated in 1954.

“To have a playground on the National Mall, in the location where you’re in sightline of the Washington Monument and the World War II Memorial — it’s really in the very heart of everything — is astonishing,” Durkin said. “It’s a great example of how you can teach people about history and historic events, reach back into the past and then bring it all forward again.”

The playground’s equipment was crafted to mirror the photograph, which is in black and white on one side and color on the other, the latter meant as an interpretation of a more promising future. Adams wanted to use his temporary monument to commemorate desegregation and highlight a moment of joy and inclusion amid a painful chapter in the country’s history.

The playground, which calls attention to the “politics around who gets to play,” is in conversation with King’s “I Have a Dream” speech that he delivered Aug. 28, 1963, at the March on Washington. The protest gathered about 250,000 people to fight for Black citizens’ civil and economic rights.

“With MLK, he had a dream that different kids can play together and that they could be together. They could occupy the same space,” Adams said. “That’s what I think this piece really talks about. That dream — is that dream in action?”

Adams, who grew up in Park Heights and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, said the country has a long way to go before realizing King’s vision.

He added it’s especially important to think about this moment of desegregation with the context that some of those pictured are likely still alive.

“If you go around the country and you go to different places, you see that everyone is kind of operating in their familiarness of that city and that city’s cultural dynamic,” Adams said. “I think that it definitely is something that we all as citizens should work towards, being in that space of acceptance.”

The exhibition was curated by Monument Lab Director Paul Farber and Salamishah Tillet, professor of Africana studies and creative writing at Rutgers University.

“This project offered an opportunity to be in America’s front yard, so to speak, and look at monuments that are enduring and monumental moments,” Farber said, with examples of the latter being the March on Washington and the AIDS memorial quilt, “and to understand how those monumental moments, even if they were only on the mall for a day or a matter of days, have profoundly impacted the trajectory of the American experience.”

Baltimore-born artist Derrick Adams created an interactive installation titled America’s Playground DC on the National Mall in Washington that coincides with the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun)

The exhibition’s title was inspired by opera singer Marian Anderson’s 1939 performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in front of 75,000 people. Anderson gave the outdoor concert after the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow her to perform at Constitution Hall because she was Black.

At the time, educator and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune said the performance told a story of “pulling together,” according to Monument Lab.

The performance is captured in another one of the exhibit’s memorials: “Of Thee We Sing” by vanessa german. According to the exhibition’s website, it is a “nine-foot steel and resin sculpture” that includes “an imaginative figural representation of Anderson held up by a sea of hands and Sandhof lilies.”

And at Paul Ramírez Jonas’s interactive bell tower, “Let Freedom Ring,” the tower plays “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,” which Anderson performed. People are invited to play the song’s final note on a 600-pound bell.

Anderson performed again at the March on Washington after King’s speech, singing “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.”

Tillet said they were “very intentional” about timing the exhibition with “this really important anniversary of American democracy,” which marks 60 years Monday.

“The long Black struggle is part of American history,” Tillet said. “History is really important to us, but also the ways in which different people from different strands of life have come to the Mall to really attest to the potential of American democracy and gathered in community to represent the ideals of freedom.”

Tillet knew that whatever Adams envisioned for the project would be “inviting, creative and powerful.” Farber added that “working with Derrick is watching genius at work.”

“Derrick is one of those artists who has been consistent in his practice of exploring themes of Black play, Black leisure, Black joy,” Tillet said. “He’s been doing this work for 20 plus years, really adding that and expanding our conversation of what we think of as Black art and Black life.”

Adams knew that he didn’t want to create a traditional, stagnant object that visitors could walk around, like he would produce for a gallery. He wanted something that was audience-focused and kept the younger generation in mind.

“My real excitement was really going to the Mall and spending time there for three days and seeing kids interact with the sculpture,” Adams said. “And seeing from far away when kids noticed that it was there and how they kind of let go of their parents’ hands and ran over to the sculpture.”

The playground also offers a place for children on the National Mall, Tillet said.

“You can think of all the distances that we have with artworks: Is it for us? Is it accessible? Are we allowed to touch?” Farber said. “And Derrick has created the ultimate public artwork that invites people into it to complete it.”

Samira Bond, 5, (left) and Saniya Bond, 7, climb on an interactive installation created by Baltimore-born artist Derrick Adams on the National Mall in Washington. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun)

Adams’ work, and his efforts alongside the other five artists to shed light on the nation’s history, were celebrated by Maryland’s U.S. senators: Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin, both Democrats.

“Baltimore has been a vibrant art hub nurturing talented artists for decades, and Derrick is one of many Baltimore-born artists whose work we can appreciate here in the nation’s capital,” Cardin said in an email. “His work and the entire ‘Beyond Granite’ exhibit will help Washington’s millions of tourists and residents approach the darkest part of our nation’s history with reflection and respect.”

Adams said it’s important to have exhibitions that talk about history “in a way that may not necessarily be flattering to all parties involved.” And it can be especially important today: Farber said the exhibit is active as the country faces a backlash to “multiracial democracy” and battles “efforts to sanitize our history.”

Adams said that he and other Black people can often be overwhelmed by oppressive structures. But regardless of what has happened to Black Americans, “We still find times to go to the playground. We still find time to spend with our family, having parties and going to the park.”

Therefore, Adams chooses to hone in on leisure, resilience and joy, rather than pain.

“I participate in protests, as well as celebration,” Adams said. “I don’t see those as being one greater than the other.”

Derrick Adams, a Baltimore-born artist, is the founder of The Last Resort, an artists’ retreat in Northeast Baltimore. The space features sculptures and other works by regional artists. Here, he relaxes in a sculpture by Hank Willis Thomas. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)