Honoring the Life of Tamir Rice

We invite you to join us as we honor the life of Tamir Rice and his mother Samira’s stewardship of his legacy, on Sunday, November 20, at the Tamir Rice Memorial Gazebo and the Stony Island Arts Bank. Through three programs, we hope to center the act of remembrance and the importance of Black cultural spaces.

Programs include a conversation between artist and Rebuild Foundation founder Theaster Gates and artist Tony Lewis at 1:30pm. At 3pm, we will facilitate a Mellon Archives Innovation Program centering Black motherhood, Black boyhood, and resilience in the face of ongoing racial violence with Professor Kimya Barden. From 4 to 7pm, DJ Duane Powell will curate a house music set to celebrate Tamir’s life during his Sunday Service program.

Rebuild Foundation is the humble steward of the gazebo near which Tamir was unjustly killed by Cleveland Police Officer Timothy Loehmann within seconds of the squad car door opening, on November 22, 2014. The gazebo, which marks this site with deep care for Tamir's family and those who have suffered similar injustices, has served as shelter for the ephemera and objects that were placed near the gazebo when it inhabited Cleveland. Standing tall on the Arts Bank lawn as both a monument and memorial, the Tamir Rice Memorial Gazebo serves as a critical space for witness, reflection, healing, and public dialogue on the relationship between race and policing.

Samaria Rice, Tamir’s mother, fought for ownership of the gazebo after the City of Cleveland moved to destroy it. When a number of museums in Cleveland declined to house the materials, artist and activist Theaster Gates offered to help. At the request of Ms. Rice, Rebuild Foundation received the gazebo in which Tamir was murdered. In the fall of 2016, the gazebo was brought from the Cudell Recreation Center in Cleveland, Ohio, to the Stony Island Arts Bank in partnership with the Tamir Rice Foundation. Thank you, Ms. Rice, for entrusting us with this material memorial and allowing us to be custodians of Tamir's legacy in Chicago.

Please visit the Tamir Rice Foundation and support the work the Rice family is spearheading to provide enrichment opportunities for children and families in Cleveland, in tribute to Tamir's own curiosity and artistic creativity.