Many artists and designers in the NMAAHC collection explore the role that hair plays within their own Black identities. These artists highlight Black hair’s ability to form meaning due to its malleable nature that gives way to creative symbolism. The cultural significance of Black hair manifests through the themes demonstrated in art works that consider race through the lenses of gender, space, and time.

Graphic design enhances how we communicate with one another, provides space for individuality and expression, and simply gives our brains a break from looking at plain text all day. Gail Anderson is a New York based designer, writer, educator, co-author, partner at Anderson Newton Design, and one of the most influential Black designers in the game.

At the heart of the Black Joy movement is what many scholars, journalists, authors, and others are describing as resistance, resilience, and reclamation of Black Humanity. Life brings everyone challenges, disappointments, losses, and unexpected difficulties, regardless of race. But when race is added to the mix, the situation is compounded exponentially. When people live in a world that devalues them because they are black or brown as well as dismisses their contributions to the larger society, Black Joy is and has been an effective tool that has allowed individuals and groups to shift the impact of negative narratives and events in their favor.

The late former Marvel editor-in-chief Stan Lee may have been was a major proponent to bringing the king of the fictional nation Wakanda to life, T’Challa, the Black Panther, was never expected to gain long-term success.

Color(ed) Theory is a series of photographs featuring houses painted entirely in a single color. Each house in the series is painted the same color as a namesake, Black targeted, consumer product. For some people, the color of the house is immediately connected to a product they are familiar with and know. For others, the symbolism behind the color of the home remains a mystery.

Also known as smileys or emoticons, emojis are used around the world and have changed the way we communicate with one another—but they didn’t always represent everyone.

Harriet Tubman has been known by many names—Araminta, Moses, conductor, daughter, sister, wife, mother, aunt. On the bicentennial of her birth, we look beyond these names to capture not only Harriet Tubman the icon, but Harriet the woman, and Harriet’s legacy of care, activism, and bravery that influenced Black women across time.

Elizabeth Catlett (1915–2012) was exiled from the United States due to the political themes she explored in her art. Her legacy is one of cultural belonging and activism that provokes conversations about the role of art among continental American neighbors: the U.S. and Mexico.

As 2022 approaches, we here at the National Museum of African American history and Culture pause to reflect on the lives of those we have lost in 2021. As we mourn their passing we must also preserve the incalculable contributions they have made to American history through their deeds and words.

Design shapes almost everything we as humans do. Designers give form to our actions—how we sit in a chair, how we turn a lamp on and off, how we move between rooms in a home. By referencing African diaspora cultural practices and well-known design traditions, these objects—ranging from wallpaper to seating to architectural elements and beyond—tell stories about a heritage of design.