The African Ancestors Garden: History and Memory at the International African American Museum

The African Ancestors Garden (Monacelli Press, 2024) is the first book to be published in conjunction with the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina. The museum’s landscape design by Hood Design Studio, led by Professor Walter Hood, exemplifies the museum’s mission to reflect on its location at Gadsden’s Wharf, the point at which nearly half of all enslaved Africans arrived in North America.

With contributions by figures critical to the realization of the International African American Museum, this significant book presents the intensive site research and concepts that went into the distinct spaces at the museum, including an infinity reflecting pool and an ethnobotanical showcase of African plants brought to North America through that landing. Hood’s design response to these historic grounds addresses memory, tragedy, and culture, a moving homage to the living Charleston community and the African diaspora at large.

With a foreword by Dr. Tonya M. Matthews, and essays by Bernard E. Powers, Jr., Dell Upton, and Louise Bernard.