On May 13, 1985, the city of Philadelphia authorized the police to drop a bomb on residents living in Cobbs Creek, a majority Black neighborhood of West Philadelphia.

This act of violence killed 11 people, destroyed 61 homes, and displaced 250 people. The bombing on Osage Avenue was an unjustifiable, traumatic, and largely buried event in Philadelphia's history that reverberates throughout the city to this day and lacks a memorial.

Reverberations explores the impact of this injustice on the city of Philadelphia by highlighting the voices and perspectives of those that witnessed, lived through, and were directly affected by the bombing. This exhibition aims to provide a space to safely (re-)encounter, reflect on, and collectively remember this history 35 years later, as a form of resistance to the continued police brutality Black communities have always endured in America.

View the conceptual development book below.