Yaad, ile, lakay—all languages have a word for home, shelter, a claim to a place, to a delineated territory of heritage. However, the experience of Black peoples across the world has created a unique yet divergent practice of creating and claiming home. The 2023 Black in Design conference explores the multidimensionality of the Black home. It is a literal structure that shelters, as a reflection of culture and traditions, as well as the spaces that home is embedded within that are not entirely physical. The conference brings together keynote panels, workshops, and conversations that discuss and expand these themes with different thought leaders involved in designing and creating various interpretations of Black homes. The program establishes a broader understanding and alternate ways of experiencing the Black home in an effort to reinforce the ideals of Black communities living across the country and larger diaspora to plan for its future.

Tobi Fagbule is a 2023 graduate from the Master of Design Studies: Ecologies program at Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) with an architecture background. Her main interests lie in the sustainability of the built environment and its sciences. She was born and raised in Port-Harcourt, and from ile-ife Osun, Nigeria where most of her research is focused. Fagbule served as diversity, inclusion, and belonging chair for the student forum (2022–23 cycle) of Harvard GSD where care—“the essence of care”—is an active method for improving interpersonal relationships and student-to-student life and enhancing diversity, inclusion, and belonging (DIB) issues within the school as a larger context. Fagbule also served on the executive board of the GSD’s African American Student Union and Africa GSD as social chair.

Michael “MJ” Johnson is a 2023 graduate from the Master of Urban Planning program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD). Prior to Harvard, he served as a manager of a community development initiative in Chicago supporting residents, elected officials, and institutional leaders in carrying out a coordinated community development effort. Johnson’s interests are at the intersection of planning, design, and participatory practices as it relates to civil and social infrastructure development.

Dora Mugerwa is a candidate in the Master of Landscape Architecture program at Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD). She received her bachelor’s of fine arts in furniture design from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and her bachelor’s of science in environmental science from Brown University. She is a Ugandan artist who was born and raised in Sweden and is now based in the United States. In her work, Mugerwa focuses on preservation, agency, and decolonization, particularly within Black or low-income communities. She centers culture, environmental systems, and our relations between each other and how they can inform a socially just present and future. She served on the executive boards of AfricaGSD and GSD’s African American Student Union (AASU) from 2021–23.

Kai Walcott is a candidate in the Master of Landscape Architecture program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD). She received her undergraduate degree in urban and regional studies, with a concentration in inequality studies from Cornell University. Before beginning her master’s degree, Walcott worked professionally in environmental management and stakeholder engagement in the United States and Jamaica, where she is from. She served on the executive board of the GSD’s African American Student Union and is the department’s Charles Fountain Scholar for 2022.

Sean Canty is an assistant professor of architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) and is the founder of Studio Sean Canty (SSC), an architecture practice based in Cambridge, MA. SSC choreographs unconventional relationships between spaces of contemplation and collective gathering. The work of the studio engages formal combination and juxtaposition at a variety of scales, from objects to interiors, and explores a range of programmatic types—from domestic environments to cultural spaces. Prior to joining the faculty at the GSD, Canty held teaching positions at the Cooper Union, University California Berkeley, and California College of the Arts. In addition to architectural design, Canty has taught classes on descriptive geometry and design media. Canty received an MArch from Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a BArch from California College of the Arts.

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