Dear Mazie,: Sanctuary, Speculation, and Sky

The Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) and the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University (ICA at VCU) are pleased to announce the release of Dear Mazie,: Sanctuary, Speculation, and Sky, an experimental reader that explores the legacy of artist and educator Amaza Lee Meredith (1895–1984), the first known Black queer woman to practice as an architect in the United States. Through essays, conversations, and artistic interventions, the publication situates Meredith’s life and work within broader histories of placemaking, gender, sexuality, and Black love.

Born in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1895, Amaza Lee Meredith was denied formal architecture training due to her race and gender. Undeterred, she went on to design landmark structures in her home state, where she built the remarkable Azurest South, 1939, in a modernist style never before seen in Virginia, and beyond, in New York and Texas. Also a trailblazing educator and artist, in 1935 Meredith founded the fine arts department at the historically Black college Virginia State University, which she chaired until her retirement in 1958, and exhibited her art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and in galleries in New York and North Carolina.

Featuring previously unpublished photos, blueprints, letters, and scrapbooks from Meredith’s archives, the publication accompanies a group exhibition of the same name, which originated at the ICA at VCU (September 2024–March 2025) and traveled to the California African American Museum (CAAM) (September 2025–March 2026). From October 4 to December 27, 2026, it will be on view at The Church, Sag Harbor—not far from Azurest North, a community founded by Black families with instrumental contributions from Meredith and her sister Maude Terry. Both the exhibition and publication take Meredith’s expansive letter-writing practice as a conceptual framework for epistolary responses in the present.

In a letter dedicated to Meredith titled “Sanctuary, Speculation, Sky,” Amber Esseiva, Senior Curator of the ICA at VCU exhibition and editorial director of the publication, writes:

“I’ve come to think of you not only as a builder of buildings, but also a builder of emotional architecture. You were a designer of intimacy, someone who stitched beauty and survival into every wall and every student. And for me, Dear Mazie, began there—not in chronology or artifact, but in atmosphere. I wanted to write you back into the room. And maybe sit there with you.”

Alongside this letter, the publication includes a conversation between Esseiva and AD-WO—an art and architecture collective founded by Jen Wood and Emanuel Admassu, whose work as exhibition designers gathered the practices of nine other artists, architects, and designers: The Black School (Joseph Cuillier and Shani Peters), Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Kapwani Kiwanga, Abigail Lucien, Practise (James Goggin and Shan James), Tschabalala Self, and Cauleen Smith. Each of their responses to Meredith’s legacy is reflected in the publication and accompanied by newly commissioned scholarly essays and oral histories with former students, colleagues, and friends.

Architectural scholar Craig Wilkins and artist and writer Charisse Pearlina Weston both conceived of new textual and visual responses for the book, which are complemented by contributions from architect Mario Gooden and architectural historian Mabel Wilson and reprints of texts by acclaimed novelist Colson Whitehead and poet and civil rights activist Anne Spencer. Wilkins considers how Meredith’s life and love with Edna Meade Colson fueled a radically personal, modernist vision of home:

“Faced with answering the artist’s fundamental conundrum of 'how to make representations of your world with what you have been given?,' Amaza imagined an alternate frame for both client and architect—one uniquely constructed to extend the benefit of doubt, to liberate comfortable conviction from orthodox narratives of expectations and acceptance. She imagined a missing frame, one never meant to be. A frame in which she could hire herself.” 

Amaza Lee Meredith’s story unfolds through sanctuaries she built—homes, schools, and communities where people of color could pursue art and education free from persecution. Dear Mazie, brings renewed attention to her practice and legacy, illuminating her contributions to modernist architecture, public education, and the politics of the built environment.

Edited with text by Amber Esseiva
Foreword by Jessica Bell Brown, ICA at VCU Executive Director
Interviews with AD-WO (Emanuel Admassu and Jen Wood) and Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Oral Histories by Joel Howard, Regenia Perry, Reverend Grady Powell, and Steve Williams

Contributions by Mario Gooden, Anne Spencer, Colson Whitehead, Mabel O. Wilson, Charisse Pearlina Weston, and Craig Wilkins

Artwork by Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Abigail Lucien, Tschabalala Self, Cauleen Smith, The Black School (Joseph Cuillier and Shani Peters), and Kapwani Kiwanga

Co-published by the Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) and the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University (ICA at VCU)

Editorial Director: Amber Esseiva
Managing Editor, Catalog Editor, Proofreader: Bonnie Chau
Editor: Ania Szremski
Designer: Practise (James Goggin and Shan James)
Printer: CP Printing Limited, Hong Kong

Specs
ISBN 9781954939158 / 45 USD / Edition of 2,000
Hardcover, 6.7 x 9.45 inches, 340 pages / 238 color ill., 43 b&w ill.

Distribution
The publication is available on CARA’s website. It is distributed internationally by Artbook | D.A.P. The publication date is July 14, 2026.

Forthcoming exhibition at The Church, Sag Harbor
October 4–December 27, 2026

Dear Mazie, is the first traveling exhibition hosted by The Church, Sag Harbor—a fitting homecoming for Amaza Lee Meredith, whose influence is of great importance to Sag Harbor's history. For more information, visit: thechurchsagharbor.org.

Support
The exhibition presentation at the ICA at VCU and the publication are made possible, in part, by generous supporters including Pam Royall, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Elmon B. Duff Charitable Lead Annuity Trust, The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, The Terra Foundation for American Art, and Virginia Humanities.