KIN: A Festival of Memory and Imagination

This October, Kinfolk Tech will transform the WSA into a living archive—a constellation of portals into memory, imagination, and the stories that refuse to disappear.

We’re living through a moment of erasure by design—digitally, politically, environmentally. This exhibition is our cultural counter-spell: a space to slow down, reconnect, and resist disappearance. KIN will showcase the importance of the archive, giving people hands-on access to the stories, monuments, and knowledge necessary to reimagine our future.

An essential part of this exhibition is the experiential programming we’re offering thanks to our amazing partners and collaborators like you. We want KIN to be a space for communal experiences for rest and repair. This exhibition space will include…

Immersive Installations and Interactive Experiences

Preservation Park

Preservation Park showcases a selection of monuments we’ve created in collaboration with artists and institutions like Museum of Modern Art, The Music Center, Tribeca Film Festival, and the Andre Cailloux Center.

The Futures We Tend

The Futures We Tend, invites you to join us in reimagining space as a radical act of cultivation. Through the course of KIN your voices will join a living archive of what's possible. Participate in the conversation about what community spaces can become when they exist as sites of connection, memory, and hope. Your voice becomes part of the futures we tend together.

Para Lélia

Para Lélia weaves together artist Kleaver Cruz’s personal revelation with the trans‑continental legacy of a revolutionary who re‑interpreted history through the eyes of a Black woman. It invites viewers to experience that same collage of voices, histories, and possibilities.

For Those Who Come After

Step into the living archive of James Baldwin. A contemplative, sacred writing space inspired by James Baldwin’s discipline and intimacy with the typewriter. This room within KIN merges the gravitas of Baldwin’s era with the modern sensibilities of Kinfolk Tech. It’s not a museum set; it’s a living, tactile environment where guests can feel Baldwin’s spirit of reflection and creation.

There Goes Nikki

There Goes Nikki is an immersive AR ode honoring the legendary poet, activist, and intellectual Nikki Giovanni in which she recites her poem “Quilting the Black-eyed Pea (We’re going to Mars)”. Set against a cosmic backdrop and guided by her voice, the experience leads viewers on a journey through Black memory, imagination, and liberation.

Events and Communal Spaces

During KIN we will be hosting a weekly series of engaging musical and experimental performances, conversations featuring intergenerational artists, storytellers, and memory workers, and Community Imagination Workshops celebrating community memory and world-building.

Reading Room & Archive

A place of rest and curiosity, the reading room and archival collection invites visitors to engage with the wisdom and materials from those who inspire cultural preservation, creativity, reclamation, and collective power. 

The Projection Room

An enclosed space for screening experimental films and multimedia, and intimate talkbacks

The Performance Space

A stage for musical, sonic, and movement performances, and talks

The Meditation Room

A sanctuary for communal wellness, healing, and ancestral practices

KIN General Store: A Marketplace Curated by BLK MKT Vintage

The KIN General Store: A Marketplace Curated by BLK MKT Vintage, is a Brooklyn-based antique and vintage online store, specializing in collectibles and curiosities representing the richness of Black history and lived experience. The KIN General store will feature a selection of goods curated by BLK MKT Vintage in partnership Black owned businesses from across the country, in addition to artifacts of memory, and apparel related to Kinfolk projects and collaborations.

Kinfolk Café

Food carries the stories of our ancestors, connecting us to heritage and tradition while nourishing both body and collective memory. The Café invites chefs to create culinary experiences that serve as a hub for cultural remembrance.

HOURS OF OPERATION*

​Fridays: 5pm–9pm

​Saturdays: 1pm–10pm

​Sundays: 1pm-7pm

*this exhibition is only open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays until November 2, 2025.

Click here for the full schedule of events and general admission registration

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