Can a Football Stadium be a Black History Museum?

In February 2022, SoFi Stadium marked two milestones. The first was hosting the Los Angeles Rams’ home field victory in Super Bowl LVI. The second was opening an exhibition of the Kinsey African American Art & History Collection. En route to the bathroom or on a beer run, visitors to the stadium’s second level may find themselves taken off guard by letters from Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, photographs of L.A.’s early-20th-century Black firefighters, formal portraits of 19th-century Black men and women, and works by major Black artists.

What does it mean to juxtapose this experience with watching professional football players—over 50% of whom are Black—go to battle on the turf below? What have the Kinseys chosen to display, and why at SoFi? And how are other people and organizations, in fields from fine art to poetry, using Black narratives to inform and enrich our understanding of history and contemporary life in unexpected ways?

Artist and Bloom & Plume founder Maurice Harris, sports agent and former NFL player Jacques McClendon, and poet, lyricist, and activist aja monet visit Zócalo and Kinsey Collection at SoFi Stadium to discuss what one of the world’s largest private collections of Black art and historical objects is doing at one of the world’s grandest football stadiums, why it matters, and where similar efforts are scoring big.

6 p.m.: In-person audience members are invited for a last, best chance to join a guided tour of the Kinsey exhibition, which leaves SoFi at the end of March

7 p.m.: Conversation, in-person and online

8 p.m.: In-person audience members are invited to join us for a reception with a DJ, complimentary snacks and beverages, and open exhibition viewing with docents.

Parking for the event is free of charge.