Events › The Requiem Project: A Memorial for African American Youths Whose Lives Were Violated by State Sanctioned Racism

In July 2025, the Shaw-Roxbury Branch Library hosted events where community members joined Rosalyn Delores Elder in embroidering the names of the young African American victims into what is now the finished The Requiem Project. The Requiem Project is on display from March 18-21 at the Shaw-Roxbury Branch Library.

The Requiem Project is a mixed-media textile piece that honors the lives of African American youth impacted by state-sanctioned violence and racism — either by murder, extreme violence, or a wrongful conviction. These violent events have occurred throughout the history of our United States, and they continue up to this present day.

This art installation serves as acknowledgment of the sacrifices of these young people, as an effort to begin to understand the why of this violence and to begin a healing process within each of us. These young people did not volunteer to become martyrs, but their lives were irreparably damaged or destroyed, nonetheless. Many of us grapple with their sacrifices with survivor's guilt, perhaps, as we know deep in our soul, “there, but for grace, goes I.”

Rosalyn Delores Elder is an architect, author, artist and entrepreneur. Ms. Elder operated Treasured Legacy, a cultural boutique from 1992 to 1998 and Jamaicaway Books, a multi-cultural bookstore from 1998 until 2012. Her book, Exploring the Legacy, outlines the African American legacy in Massachusetts, and in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Malcolm X’s birthday, in 2025 she organized a reading of The Autobiography of Malcolm X. The Requiem Project is her most recent art project.

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