Episode 6: Collective Memory, Community Building, and Authenticity

Closing out Black History Month, B(l)ackspace: Episode 6 explores themes of collective memory, community building, and authenticity within spatial environments. Special guests include Jerald "Jcoop” Cooper of Hood Century Modern, Natou Fall (M. Arch ‘19) of SCI-Arc, and Joshua Foster of JAF. This episode is hosted by Milan Sledge (M. Arch ‘26). After the conversation, audience members can enjoy a mini gallery walk to view students' personal works.B(l)ackspace aims to provide a safe and reimagined space for the SCI-Arc community, with free drinks, delicious food, good music, and even better conversations.BLACK: /blak/ adjective1. A color that absorbs all the colors of the visible spectrum and reflects none of them2. Of African or Aboriginal ancestryThrough @hoodmidcenturymodern, Jerald “Jcoop” Cooper researches, documents, and educates the masses on the unsung, the overlooked and the hometown heroes of not only modern architecture and design, but the city at large.His inaugural talk, “Shit You Already Know” recontextualizes architecture and infrastructure in a language native to African Americans, speaking to the connections between black folks and the city. Curating and renewing popular culture moments, Cooper has built the “Hood Century Archive”, a collection of found and original multimedia that connects the dots via sports, music, fashion and cultural trends, studying how certain things simply came to be.Growing up as a Montessori kid, Cooper has come to share his talks at Harvard GSD and Woodbury University with the same intentional approach to language and education that he thrived in. Led by the Ghanian teaching of Sankofa, Cooper continues to return to the through-lines of Black history as he teaches his Spring 2025 Semester on “Discovering Black Modernism” at Woodbury University School of Media and Architecture– a curriculum dedicated to the canon development, defining and indexing of Black Modernism.Natou Fall (b. 1993, France) is a Senegalese-American multidisciplinary artist and educator based in Los Angeles. Trained as an architect, she works across sculpture, film, drawing, and makeup artistry, exploring queer aesthetic praxis, transnationalism, nostalgia, and African spirituality. She holds an M.Arch from SCI-Arc (‘19), where she received the Frank and Bertha Gehry Prize for her thesis installation “Shaping Face”. Fall has exhibited at Context Projects, Band of Vices, Gallery 90220, and SoHo House, and collaborated with brands including Ami Colé, SolidNature, and Sonos. She teaches undergraduate design studios and visual studies at SCI-Arc, merging fine art, architectural thinking, and speculative histories.Joshua A. Foster is an award-winning community builder, architectural designer, educator, and speaker. He is the Founder and CEO of JAF, a community impact-focused consulting firm working at the intersection of strategy, design, and development in the built environment. Joshua is also a Community College Adjunct Architecture Professor teaching classes at multiple colleges in Los Angeles County. Additionally, he serves on both local and national non-profit boards including, the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), the Long Beach Community Design Center, Architecture + Advocacy, and the USC Architectural Guild. A native of the Philadelphia area, Joshua is a graduate of both Columbia University and the University of Southern California with degrees in Architecture, Sustainability, and Real Estate Development.