Black Future Newsstand Presents: Riot to Repair Soundscape Exhibition
Friday, May 2nd, 2025
About
From Media 2070, Media Justice, ZEAL Co-op and the Racial Equity in Journalism fund at Borealis Philanthropy, comes a new Black Future Newsstand exploring the impact of journalism on Black communities. The Black Future Newsstand Presents: Riot to Repair Soundscape Exhibition is a multimedia immersive showcase that provides a lived experience of the power of reparative storytelling. The multidisciplinary exhibition will feature the Riot to Repair audio archive, created by students at the USC Charlotta Bass Journalism and Justice Lab, a rendition of the Black Future Newsstand, an art gallery curated in partnership with ZEAL, Windows of Opportunity an augmented reality artifact by Dela Wilson and an immersive soundscape created by Black River Life Media. The exhibition programming will also include political education panel discussions, interactive activities and collaborations with local Black media outlets.
This exhibition will transport participants to places where stories thrive, invoking the charm of a grandmother’s living room, to hear about how the 2020 uprisings incited people’s ability to speak and sparked community building. Community members will engage with these themes in a space where radical and fugitive storytelling practices are commonplace. The exhibition emphasizes the role of Black spaces in crafting collective memory and contributing truth in a world fueled by anti-Black narratives and erasure.
Through these installations we ask, how does Black storytelling act as a sanctuary to tell and preserve beautiful, joyful and abundant stories about Blackness?
Partners
Installations
Black Future Newsstand
Black Future Newsstand is an interactive art and journalism installation that answers the central question, "What does a media system that loves Black people look and feel like in a future where reparations are real?" This L.A. installation, placed alongside the Riot to Repair audio archive, pays homage to the unsung heroes of storytelling. It features Black newspapers, zines, books and more that tell the story of Black resistance and repair, highlighting the joy, spirit and beauty that guides us through it all.
Riot to Repair: Community Archives on Media & Narrative Power
The audio archive created by the Charlotta Bass Journalism and Justice Lab at University of Southern California and Media 2070, the campaign for media reparations, tells the stories of the death of George Floyd and the uprisings of 2020 from the eyes of L.A. community members. Through audio stories, reparative essays and #BlackFutureHeadlines we invite participants into a future on the other side of media reparations. This is an abundant world of journalism that celebrates Black multimedia storytelling, handles community stories with care and provides a necessary intervention to transform narratives grounded in anti-Blackness, militarization and racial capitalism.
Students Featured:
Anasazi Ochoa • Araz Madatian •
Brianna Rieux •
Brier Evans •
Caleb Carter •
Enzo Luna •
Grace Gerstner •
J’nai Knox •
Kamyar Moradi •
Katelyn Do •
Kiya Young •
Maisy White •
Mallika Seshadri •
Melekte Hailemeskel •
Qais Adawiya •
Safira Khan•
Sheridan Hunter •
Siena Maniatis •
Yvonne Abedi
Windows of Opportunity,
Augmented Reality Artifact, Dela Wilson (2024)
This interactive installation positions fiscal imagination as a portal into reparative justice, inviting viewers to engage with the complex dynamics of structural repair and community resilience.
Inspired by research published by Linda Bilmes and Cornell William Brooks at Harvard University, Windows of Opportunity layers symbolic imagery of Evanston, Illinois, the first tax-funded reparations policy in the United States, with spatial audio translating functionally dysfunctional bureaucratic red tape into actual reparative policy. The experience invites users to explore how the U.S. government strategically selects when and how reparations are applied - yet continues to delay and deny their effect for Black Americans. Embedded within are portraits of individuals who have received reparations in Evanston, as well as cultural motifs symbolizing the human impact of policy considerations and the global solidarity required for reparations movements to thrive.
Reverberations
A collaborative work by Collette “Coco” Watson & Terry “20” Poindexter commissioned by Black River Life Media and Arts. Reverberations is a 15-minute abstract overture—a fusion of moods designed to guide listeners through a complex emotional landscape, from profound contemplation to defiant resistance, and ultimately, glimpses of a triumphant future. Reverberations is an emotional and sonic journey—a reverent, immersive listening experience grounded in Afrofuturism.
Featured
Artists
Panel Description
Shifting What's Possible: Driving Narrative Power in Tech Oligarchy
In the midst of a tech oligarchy capturing our government, we find ourselves in a culture war with the continued attacks on the critical media, art, and storytelling institutions that shape how we connect, think and make meaning. This panel will explore and reflect on the unique challenges we face as storytellers and narrative strategists because the tech oligarchy is disrupting our ability to use media and storytelling to galvanize our communities toward liberation. Considering what we're up against, what is the role of narrative power building and storytelling in this moment? What new strategies must emerge to get us closer to media reparations and liberation at-large? What are the ways our people are already using media and technology to shift what's possible?
Moderator: Eteng Ettah, Media Justice
Black Future News Presents:
Riot to Repair Soundscape Exhibition
Friday, May 2nd, 2025 | 12pm - 9pm | Free with Registration
Friday, May 2nd, 2025 | 12pm - 9pm | Free with Registration