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A groundbreaking Afrofuturist art exhibition is now open in Bushwick

“We have to create another world. In order to do that, we have to imagine it.”

Rossilynne Skena Culgan
Written by
Rossilynne Skena Culgan
Things to Do Editor
A Black woman in a colorful dress sits on the ground amid a colorful art exhibit.
Photograph: By Laila Annmarie Stevens
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In an industrial part of Bushwick, tucked between a lumberyard, a granite wholesaler and a welding school, an art exhibition considers a very different type of repair. Instead of home repair, this Afrofuturist exhibition explores the concept of reparations, imagining what a “transformed world actually looks like and feels like.” 

The exhibition, titled “Futures of Repair,” has brought together six artists to create an entire world set in 2165—about 125 years after theoretical global reparatory actions transformed society. The result? A powerful space filled with interactive installations, sound sculptures, meditation space and healing. It’s on view now through March 10, 2026 inside a warehouse at 195 Morgan Avenue with tickets (free; donations suggested) by appointment here

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“We wanted a social dream space—that was the inspiration going into it. We settled on this, creating the art exhibit ‘Futures of Repair’ to be a part of the larger reparations and repair movement, particularly in these turbulent political times,” says Terry Marshall, founder Intelligent Mischief, which organized the exhibit.

A group of people look at art exhibits.
Photograph: By Laila Annmarie Stevens

From the first step inside, the exhibition prioritizes a much-needed sense of calm and healing. A tea master offers different beverage blends for guests to sip as they are invited to a join a recorded meditation practice narrated by poet Aisha “Ish” Al-Hurra. After that, visitors can explore seven different artworks at their leisure, stopping to hang out and have discussions along the way. 

A piece by Ari Melenciano called Innercodex encourages visitors to consider how emotional patterns are formed, internalized and potentially re-authored. In addition to a detailed emotional map, Melenciano presents an egg-shaped chair with a soundtrack meant to re-create the feeling of being in the womb. 

We have to create another world. In order to do that, we have to imagine it.

The exhibition continues to a three-part film and ceremonial offering “rooted in Black feminist cosmologies, ancestral veneration and the ongoing call for reparations.” The film by Alisha B. Wormsley pulls footage from Oakland, Tucson and Washington, D.C. It’s projected onto three large black weavings inspired by African American quilting motifs. Continue then to Terence Nance’s Hierophant, an altar inviting visitors to think about repair. 

An Black male artist in a white outfit stands next to his work, an altar with a tube TV.
Photograph: By Laila Annmarie Stevens

Next is Nu Goteh’s In the Presence of Resonance, an interactive art piece based on the principle “the only good system is a sound system.” This massive speaker plays parts of the house music song “Follow Me,” but it never reaches the crescendo. The more people who lean on it, Marshall explained, the more you can hear and feel the bass.  

The vibrant colors will lure you to the next piece, an altar decorated with pink faux flowers, clear bubbles and bedazzled push buttons. If you take the opportunity to push one, you’ll hear audio messages like, “You’re stepping into a space shaped by memory, breath and the quiet work of repair. Impermanence: Rituals of Return is an immersive living practice, asking nothing from you other than to be present. Let your body lead, let your attention drift and let the rest find you where you are.”

A Black man holds up a film negative to the light at an art exhibit.
Photograph: By Laila Annmarie Stevens

Finally, the exhibition closes with a community altar by Aisha Shillingford that features a variety of books and a triptych collage creating an imagined world. It invites people to consider, “How can we be free? How can we build a society of repair?” Marshall tells Time Out. “If we live in a system that causes harm, we have to think about repair.” 

Let your body lead, let your attention drift and let the rest find you where you are.

Visitors often describe the experience as stepping into “a portal,” a place where they can feel fully immersed and be inspired to come up with ideas. That’s particularly needed right now, Marshall tells Time Out.

Seven artists stand together for a posed photo.
Photograph: By Laila Annmarie Stevens

“So much harm and damage is being done in our daily lives on a social, political and even cultural level. We’re seeing culture and history being rewritten. Truth is being denied. We need a space that heals and repairs people. We have to create another world. In order to do that, we have to imagine it,” Marshall says. “We have to operate on a level of imagination and feeling in order to create material results.”

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