About

Sumayyah Súnmádé Raji is an archivist, architectural designer, materials researcher and writer exploring the black diaspora through the lens of space, materiality, and culture. Through her research and creative practice, she reimagines and reclaims physical and non-physical architectures by centering collective voices, histories, and experiences. Using the careful examination of everyday materials as a methodology, she uncovers narratives silenced by colonialism and other extractive processes and stitches them to restore existing archives and explore participatory forms of curatorial practice. Her work manifests at multiple scales through objects, drawings, performance, and dialogue.

Sumayyah holds a Master of Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture and Environmental Design (Hons) from Morgan State University. In 2023 she participated in Biennale College Architettura at La Biennale di Venezia and has contributed to Harvard GSD's Journal, Pairs 04.

She was recently awarded a research grant for her "Much Ado About Yam" project by the Architectural League of New York and the New York State Council on the Arts. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Portrait of a woman with dark skin and short curly hair, wearing a black and white off-shoulder dress with patterns, standing in front of a textured brick and concrete wall.