CITYPARK
The exhibition hub at CITYPARK focuses on the legacies of Black life and its erasures in the city.
VISITING THE hub at CITYPARK
CITYPARK is located in the footprint of Mill Creek Valley, a predominantly Black neighborhood whose residents were displaced during the city’s demolition of the Midtown area in the late 1950s. The former site of Pruitt-Igoe, the notorious public housing project open for only 22 years, sits a mile north on Jefferson. A series of Black historic houses and history museums, including the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site, are located nearby.
Pillars of the Valley (Damon Davis) at CITYPARK
Watch a video about Pillars of the Valley (2:13), where Davis explains his vision for this work. Davis says, “At the core of it, I want Black people to feel powerful.” How does this artwork make you feel? What did you know about Mill Creek Valley before visiting, and what do you know now?
Union Station
Artist Steffani Jemison’s work explores the lost history of the Black stage in St. Louis. Listen to Josephine Baker singing “Breezin’ Along with the Breeze” (1926, lyrics) The line “sky is the only roof” is the inspiration for Jemison’s artwork. What does this line mean to you? What do you think it might have meant to Baker?
Metropolitan Sewer District Headquarters
Artists virgil b/g taylor and Seitu Jones use the sewer system and the bus route to spark civic participation. Imagine: What are other creative ways to use the infrastructure we use every day?
Defensive Landscape (Jordan Weber) at Memorial Plaza
Jordan Weber began this project in 2022, with a work called All Our Liberations (video, 3:13). Listen to Weber describe this work in his own words. Why do you think Weber was interested in creating a garden? How is that work connected to Defensive Landscape?