We believe that the arts have the power to enhance, inspire, and promote positivity, self-worth, and the overall well-being of individuals and communities.
Through "What We Carried to the Water" at 11th Street Bridge Park’s Hammock Grove, we aim to create a meaningful, engaging, and inclusive space that honors the history and culture of DC, fosters healing, and inspires hope for the future.
Overview
"What We Carried to the Water" is an immersive art and community engagement project set along the banks of the Anacostia River in Washington, DC. This initiative connects Black women's historical and contemporary experiences to the river, exploring themes of enslavement, resilience, and ongoing struggles for justice and recognition. By drawing on Black women's histories and relationships with water, the project seeks to create a space for reflection, healing, and community building.
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The project's centerpiece will be the Hammock Grove, an installation of vibrant, artist-designed hammocks along the riverbank. These hammocks will serve as spaces for rest and reflection.
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SE Washington, DC.
Spanning the Anacostia River, the 11th Street Bridge Park will link neighborhoods west of the River (Capitol Hill/Navy Yard) with historic Anacostia/Fairlawn—historically African-American neighborhoods east of the river.
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Hammock Grove is a commissioned public art project by the 11th Street Bridge Park—a partnership between the local non-profit Building Bridges Across the River and the District government.
Forecast, a non-profit based in Saint Paul, MN, was selected through a national competition to join internationally recognized firms OMA and OLIN along with engineers at Whitman, Requardt & Associates on the celebrated 11th Street Bridge Park. The Forecast team worked to facilitate a selection process to commission artwork for the Park, with a focus on amplifying the stories, culture, and heritage of neighboring Black residents.
Forecast led the selection process for five commissioned artworks at the Park, including Hammock Grove. Keep scrolling to earn more about the artists selected for designing Hammock Grove.
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Expected in 2027.
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Follow us on Instagram @hammockgrovedc, sign up for our newsletter for updates on our community engagement process, and look out for our future events. If you have questions, you’re interested in collaborating, offering resources, or sponsoring a hammock, please contact us at hammockgrovedc@gmail.com
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To learn more and for all updates, please visit Building Bridges Across the Bridge
“We have all felt the impact of gentrification on our Black communities first-hand—that is why healing, holding space for the residents, and listening to the community’s needs is important to ensure Hammock Grove is a beautiful opportunity for deep engagement and activism. These values are at the center of our process.”
Our Priorities
Cultural Legacy, Healing Gentrification Wounds, & Centering Historically Black Communities
Engagement
The hammock design process will be enriched by interactive participation from DC natives and locals. They will be a culmination of collaborations, collected narratives, and virtual events which intentionally celebrate the experiences of the community. We will engage various communities, collect local stories, preserve oral histories while creating art with the community members.
Inclusion
Each hammock will be named after and honor a specific theme, story, or place relevant to DC culture. Each theme will be selected with and by the community. Our vision is for visitors to feel excited about engaging with the hammocks because of the unique story each one celebrates. Those who are being invited to use the space should see themselves reflected in it.
Rest
The colorful hammocks would offer community members access to space for mental wellness, a communal resting place, and one for general relaxation and taking a moment from the day. As a way to honor, celebrate, and generate discourse on the erasure of Black people and our spaces, our Hammock Grove would provide a place for rest and reflection, where we would feel seen.
Safety
Be safe as you relax. Hammock Grove is being designed in collaboration with architects and engineers. We are committed to spreading awareness of how to properly use hammocks. Through our community engagement and user experience design, we are prioritizing educating our community on how to best use hammocks at Hammock Grove and beyond.
Meet the Team
Together, we bring expertise in surface pattern design, weaving, fashion design, industrial sewing, community activism, and installation. As a team, we have aligned values in creativity, community, and wellness.
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Aliana Grace Bailey is an interdisciplinary fiber artist, designer, care worker, and founder of vibrant grace studio. She was born and raised in DC. She is a passionate advocate for radical self-love, wellness, healing, and grief support. Aliana’s work embraces artmaking to build intimacy, archive stories, and create inner peace. Aliana’s work is large, emotional, and vibrant, encompassing the body and providing viewers comfort while exploring familial connections, memories, and heart-tugging experiences. As a Washington DC native, contributing to spaces of rest and wellness in DC holds a special place in her heart.
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Rhea Beckett is an artist, curator, and fifth-generation educator whose practice centers on knowledge sharing and collaboration. She is the founder of Black Artist Research Space, a creative collective that presents collaborations between artists. Rhea was born in Silver Spring, Maryland, and grew up in Dayton, Ohio. Many of her fondest childhood memories are of visiting relatives and close family friends in DC in the 90s and early 2000s. The vibrant Black community and culture Rhea experienced as a child in DC motivates much of her practice to document, preserve, and collect narratives of Black people today.
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Syreeta C is a fashion designer who aims to blend form and function through creations that empower their users. With fashion as a medium linked deeply to esteem and autonomy, Syreeta's goal is to support community self-expression and efficacy through crafted wearables and textiles. Clothing is something that many of us interact with daily; thus, it serves as a great visual vehicle for community engagement. In addition to uplifting the wearer, there is always hope that their audience will find inspiration in the garments and the individual within them. As a native Washington Metro area citizen who loves the outdoors, community engagement through the creation of Hammock Grove is an exciting endeavor.
We ask, in what ways can these hammocks cultivate conversation, healing, and hope for the future? In what way could this project serve to reclaim and take up space?
