Charting a Better World Through Malcolm X’s New York

Malcolm X’s name alone conjures up a set of social images and connotations that anchor him in the zeitgeist as a hyper-militant black man, provoked by racism but driven by self-determination. Unlike other much-loved leaders and writers of the modernist era, such as Toni Morrison and James Baldwin—whose work has arguably been overrated—Malcolm X is rarely accorded the same dimensionality. At least until now.

Well titled Malcolm’s Mapping (Columbia Books on Architecture and the City), a new collection of essays traces the topography of the political leader’s life and his ever-changing positions on politics, religion, and love. Exploring how Malcolm X was shaped by the context of his built environment, moving from geographic markers in Nebraska to Harlem in the years leading up to his assassination in 1965, editor Najha Zigbi-Johnson and a range of contributors—including writers, artists, and activists—offer a blueprint for rethinking our world.

From the gold typography to the brown cover, the book’s design by Albert Hicks IV and Marcus Washington Jr. of Ayem immediately immerses us in emblems of the Islamic faith that orient the reader toward a tender experience with their subject. The passionate conversations, speculative essays, and artworks presented here mimic the intimacy of reading the holy scriptures.

But in this case, the challenge is to convert the reader. The book moves between two transitional moments in Malcolm X’s political awakening: how he found the Nation of Islam to become a black nationalist, and how he left it for Sunni Islam and became a human rights activist fighting against global imperialism. In her essay “Moving in Thought: Malcolm X and Black Space-Time,” curator Ladi’Sasha Jones describes the transformative power of the instigator’s multiscalar humanitarianism, which led him to found the Organization of Afro-American Unity in 1964.

Elsewhere in the book, a transcript of a conversation between scholars Lisa Beyeler-Yvarra and Denise Lim highlights the interracial solidarity between Malcolm X and Japanese-American activist Yuri Kochiyama, whose granddaughter Akemi Kochiyama is another prominent collaborator. Archival footage of Kochiyama in his Manhattanville apartment, decorated with protest ephemera and the site of abolitionist meetings Malcolm X attended, has been reshaped by Zakiyyah Haffejee and Adam Osman as a 3D diagram to highlight how the space also functioned as a library and community center. In the moments when we see his comrades shine, we are reminded that the sun does not only rise and set on Malcolm X.

Urban studies scholar Darien Alexander Williams takes a different approach, highlighting Malcolm X’s impact on revolutionary black music through artists like drummer Max Roach and singer Abbey Lincoln, providing a playlist that can be sat down to embrace liberation through sound. This critical reframing of Malcolm X’s complex legacy distorts the traditional sense of place, reminding us of our ability to completely transform the physical structures we inhabit through everyday acts of defiance.

Malcolm’s Mapping (2024), edited by Najha Zigbi-Johnson, is published by Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, and is available online and from independent booksellers.