Black Nation Building in Religious Space

Title: Black Nation Building in Religious Space
Type: Document
Creator: Ciaramella, Jaclyn; Rodriguez, Patricia
Date: 2024-12-09
Description: Final Assignment for ARCH 73100 (Fall 2024)
Language: English
Subject: Maysles Documentary Center; St. Martin's Episcopal Church; Nation Building; Lenox Avenue; Gentrification; Religion; Community Engagement
Abstract: This project aims to evaluate the status of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church as a part of a nation building project in West Harlem, NY. Through a study of the church’s history, prominent community participation and relationships draw to the notion of non-religious obligation that the church has thus far, and may continue to enact among the Lenox Avenue neighborhood. The architecture of the church reveals significant details of these relationships, as well as the role that European wealth and colonization has played on the speculative imaginary of American societies. Though St. Martin’s demographic context has changed due to The Great Migration, White Flight, and current gentrification, the idea of the speculative imaginary remains present and active, holding potential insight into the re-programming St. Martin’s church.