Resurrecting the Chicago Renaissance

There are moments when time and place collapse. The past and present merge. Something new feels strangely familiar.

The debut of the Floating Museum ’s latest project, for Mecca , conjures the past and facilitates the revelations that come from remembering. The monumental inflatable sculpture has gravitas at 41 feet long and 30 feet tall, despite being made mostly of air.

Standing outside of the Illinois Institute of Technology’s (IIT) architecture building on a hot day in August, the unexpected rhythms of trumpet, drums, and bass, float up from the ground floor, just like they might have 80 or 90 years ago.

In the early 20th century, what is now IIT’s Crown Hall was an apartment complex that shook with the music and energy of the Chicago Black Renaissance. Black families in Bronz