When the people of Crenshaw found out that plans for a new Metro line called for the train to cut through the heart of their neighborhood—without stopping—they were angry and disappointed, but they weren’t surprised.
Residents and local leaders responded by transforming the danger of Black erasure into a celebration of Black cultural permanence. They convinced the city not only to add a Metro stop in their community but to leverage its construction into the creation of what is anticipated to be the world’s largest open-air Black public art project. When complete, Destination Crenshaw will be home to artworks by Los Angeles artists like Charles Dickson, Maren Hassinger, Alison Saar, and Kehinde Wiley. Its architecture, streetscapes, and landscape designs are firmly rooted in Black identity, from African giant star grass—which was used as bedding on slave ships and has come to symbolize Black resilience in America—to Sankofa Park’s namesake bird, which represents the need to look to the past to build the future.
