This is a general call for participation for Black Forest, a nationwide living monument and archive for the over 100k Black lives lost to Covid-19 in the US. We’re recording the names and stories of those lost and planting trees for them in their neighborhoods through a series of events organized in collaboration with local communities and organizations. Scroll down and sign up to participate in this historical project to remember this monumental loss of Black life.

We’re organizing plant-ins in Black neighborhoods across all 50 states. In some cities we’ll be planting up to about 1000 trees. Last November we planted our first 60 trees for Black Forest in Melvindale, MI in collaboration with Greening of Detroit, Eddie Bauer, Detroit Zoo and American Forests. This April we’ll be planting another 20 trees in Dorchester, MA in collaboration with Speak for the Trees Boston, Codman Square Neighborhood Council, the City of Boston Parks and Recreation Department, Friends of Dr. Loesch Park, B.O.L.D. Teens, and the Arbor Day Foundation. As we organize events in your city we’ll invite you to RSVP for them. 

Black Forest is a collaboration between artist Ekene Ijeoma, Poetic Justice Group (PJG) and local communities across the US. Ekene Ijeoma is an artist and Director of the PJG at MIT. He creates artworks that expose the systems unjustly affecting people and engage people in communally changing these systems. At PJG they create artworks at the scale of injustices that are community-driven, multi-site, and networked. If you have any questions, please email us at black-forest@media.mit.edu.