PUBLIC ART PROPOSAL
Title: Song of Sons
Artist: Nate Langston Palmer
Dates: Spring and Summer 2025
Locations: 800 9th Street SW + 2310 Nicholson Street SE
Support this project:
Click Here to Sign the online petition
We are presenting the below information at the
ANC 6D Meeting on July 15th at 7:50pm.
Click Here to join the meeting via Zoom. The agenda can be viewed here.
ANC 7B is on summer hiatus and we are unable to present this project at the full meeting. The proposal has been sent to our ANC representative, Commissioner John Adams, and the Chair, Commissioner Kelvin Brown. If you have any questions, concerns, or support that you want to share with the ANC7B Commission you can do so by emailing:
Commissioner John Adams: 7B01@anc.dc.gov
Commissioner Kelvin Brown: 7B06@anc.dc.gov
The Nicholson Project is working with artist Nate Langston Palmer on a Public Art Building Communities grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. The proposed project will feature photography and video from Nate's series "Song of Sons" comprised of two large building wraps on view spring and summer of 2025, along with video projection during certain evenings throughout the exhibition, an outdoor exhibition of the work at The Nicholson Project in SE DC, and a series of the photographs installed on bus shelters along a bus route between The Nicholson project and the Wharf (where the building wraps and projection will be).
The Nicholson Project is requesting the public's support of this project through this online petition, which we will include with our grant application. Please sign in support and share with others!
Nate Palmer’s "Song of Sons" photography series is about a dance crew in DC that is made up of a group of young Black men, and their style of dance, Beat-Ya-Feet, which was created in and remains specific to Washington, DC. Using dance and creative expression as its vehicle, the series focuses on the lives of these young men and their unique journey into adulthood. As an artist born and raised in DC, Palmer has seen the City change drastically over the last few decades, and as a result, he has seen many of his neighbors forced to sell their homes and move to the outskirts of the City. What is clear is that with the displacement of long-term Black residents, comes the displacement of a vast cultural network, one that in DC is deeply rooted in music, dance, and play. The work that Palmer creates in and of DC explores cultural expression, young Black joy, and brotherhood, and aims to preserve and celebrate Black culture in Washington, DC, and those that keep it alive.
This project will consist of 4 physical components + an interactive digital component:
Two building wraps (800 9th Street SW, the Wharf)
Video projection of the dancers (800 9th Street SW, the Wharf)
A small exhibition of the work wheat-pasted on the back of The Nicholson Project's back studio (alley side) (2310 Nicholson Street SE)
A series of smaller, street-level photographs installed on bus shelters throughout the city on bus lines that connect The Nicholson Project and the public art installation at the Wharf
A digital component that will allow the public to engage with the work using an app via their smartphones. The app will feature additional videos of the dancers, behind-the-scenes images, video and audio including interviews with the artist, and augmented reality that will bring the artworks to life.
Questions?
Contact Allison Nance at allison@thenicholsonproject.org
