Housing
A Homecoming Through Art for Pittsburgh’s Historic Hill District
Njaimeh Njie’s art series honoring black lives in Pittsburgh’s Hill District emerges as reports show that black lives haven’t mattered much in the city.
You may have heard the cry, or the restless yell, from Pittsburgh that there are black people in the future, as pronounced in the ongoing art project created by artist Alisha Wormsley.
It is perhaps just as important to note that there are black people still in the present as well, especially in a city where black lives—and the lives of black women in particular—have been under-valued and unprotected. Njaimeh Njie, a Pittsburgh-based artist who works primarily with print and photography, set out on a journey in 2016 to document black lives in her city, focusing on the Hill District, the historic black neighborhood that serves as the home base for some of the world’s most pioneering musicians and August Wilson’s 10-play theatrical universe.