Earlier this year, I had the privilege of visiting the National Museum of African American History & Culture and it was honestly the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life. There was so much culture and history to unpack, that I wasn’t able to visit each of the levels before the museum closed. The lower levels tell the story of “historical darkness” starting from the 1400’s revisiting slavery and our journey to freedom. Whereas the levels going up ranges from education, sports, urban life, religion, entertainment, activism, and more. Initially, I was upset when I realized I wasn’t going to have time to visit the lower part, but I honestly had so many emotions that day that if I did, I would have been an emotional wreck.
It should come as no surprise that my favorite level and exhibit was the one that focused on entertainment, specifically movies, television and theater. I was literally beaming with so much excitement! I owe a big part of my childhood and identify to seeing visual representations of my blackness and in seeing all those important trailblazers and pioneers in entertainment celebrated in one space was chilling. It also assured me that all of my efforts with Black On The Scene, is not in vain and if those are the shoes that have led the way then I have nothing to fear!
I didn’t take the most pictures, but here is a few pics from the film and tv section.
Overall, it was a 100/10 experience and I do recommend. It’s still so crazy to me how they were able to fit all of that into a museum, without losing the true definition of the black experience.
SN: I’ll be visiting the museum again this weekend and I’m going to make sure I have my tissues ready!
