Our Vision
Centering Blackness is everyone’s work.
The Black Thought Project exists to transform anti-Black cultures and narratives so we may all live liberated from these deep seated societal and psychological wounds. Recognizing the power of art to suspend reality, the project’s creator, Alicia Walters, sought to design an interactive, publicly accessible art installation that gave Black and nonBlack people a chance to experience what it means to Center Blackness together in public, in real time, with our bodies. The experience provides to tools for Centering Blackness in life while uncovering narratives that affirm Black folx’ wholeness, wisdom, complexity and deepest humanity.
The idea is simple and yet unassumingly deep and complex: build walls upon which only Black people are allowed to write. Yet, Centering Blackness in this way does not just happen. It takes a thoughtfully and carefully designed curricula of Centering Blackness facilitated in multiracial communities in public space. Alicia has designed and carried out just that. Working closely with communities interested in this experiment, Alicia trains “thought protectors” to create environments that explicitly Center Blackness, providing specific rules and roles for how nonBlack people can participate.
The walls themselves are sites of deep reflection, inviting Black folx to express their authentic thoughts and feelings on a range of pressings topics of interest to our communities. Everything about the Black Thought Project—from who she co-creates with to the location of the walls to the questions posed, music played and way the experience is opened, facilitated and closed—is thoughtfully designed to Center Blackness.
The tenets and practices of the Black Thought Project are universal. These tools can be applied in numerous formats from meeting facilitation to how institutions showcase Black art.
The project began with a declaration:
The Black experience is sacred. Worthy of protection. An honor to witness. The seed of the world’s healing.
And a curiosity:
Can we make the world a sanctuary for Black expression?
“I started the Black Thought Project as a way to experiment with Centering Blackness in the wild, on our streets, in our communities. I wanted people to feel what it is like to be in right-relationship to Blackness. For Black people to reflect on our own lives and perspectives knowing we are being protected, not threatened or considered a threat; witnessed, not profiled, judged or surveilled; our expressions honored, not commodified or exploited. For us to be in our joy and our healing in public without shame or fear.
I wanted nonBlack people to practice protecting Black people and our sacred experiences FIRST. To see what it feels like to witness themselves in an environment where they are not the center, to honor and see themselves in relationship to Blackness— Black joy, pain, dreams, desires— without the need to co-opt, pathologize, stifle, or make it in any way about them. And from that place, to listen and learn what Black folx think about who we are, where we are and where we want to be as a society, to uncover power narratives and solutions that put Black people’s humanity, wellness, and visions at the center.
In just 4 years, I have done all that and then some. And we’re just getting started.”
—Alicia Walters, Black Thought Project Creator
Alicia Walters created the Black Thought Project in 2019 and has since engaged thousands of people in communities across the U.S.
“To freely express ourselves, Black folx must be protected—not threatened or considered a threat; witnessed—not profiled, surveilled or judged; honored—not exploited or commodified. ”