The room Imani Y. Haynes built at the California African American Museum stays open until March 14, 2027, and she designed it so nobody walking in has to be told what they are looking at.
Haynes is the independent curator of Sinners: Sounds That Summon, an exhibit honoring the juke joint sequence from Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, made in partnership with Warner Bros. Pictures, Coogler and Proximity Media. CAAM executive director Cameron Shaw chose her to lead the curatorial direction. Visitors are guided through three themes, Music Makes Sound, Music Makes Movement and Music Makes Worlds, past costumes and set design from the film, a tablet that lets them zoom in on an object and see where it appears on screen, and an interactive called Sounds That Carry Us that asks for a sound that brings them joy and who it reminds them of.
The decision that shaped all of it was about who she was speaking to. “I didn’t want to feel like I was talking to Black people about Blackness, like as if I was an outsider,” she said. “I wanted it to feel familiar.”
She left the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture to work independently, and she said she navigated the first few months wondering if she had made the biggest mistake of her life. “This moment has shown me who I am without the training wheels,” she said.
