Mallory Nezam, De Nichols, and Damon Davis are the artists and designers of MADAD, a collective from St. Louis, MO. MADAD works to reimagine how joy, justice, and interactivity improve public spaces and cultural experiences in St. Louis. Their work seeks to support a new series of interactive public monuments that illuminate spatial injustice and cultural memory gaps in St. Louis, as it relates to racial division, residential displacement, and localized diaspora. Their project, Black Memory STL: Division, Displacement, and Local Diaspora, is a multi-year series of public art installations and interventions that stem from community partnerships developed through their partnerships with the Brickline Greenway development and the Griot Museum of Black History. The initial sites for the project include the Griot Museum, Millcreek Valley, and Eads Bridge. MADAD’s work seeks to integrate technology to visualize Black oral and spatial histories in interactive installations, projects, and performances. 

Mallory Nezam is a civic artist and cultural consultant who loves cities and believes that we have the tools to make them more equitable and joyful. She specializes in creative placeknowing and equitable community development and uses a performance practice to bring justice and joy to the cities she works in.
Twitter: @activatethecity. Instagram: @nezombie. 

De Nichols is a designer, social entrepreneur, and keynote lecturer who mobilizes global change makers to activate creative ideas that address civic and social challenges within their communities.
Twitter and Instagram: @de_nichols. 

Damon Davis is an award-winning post-disciplinary artist who works and resides in St. Louis, Missouri. His work spans across illustration, painting, printmaking, music, film, and public art.
Twitter: @heartacheNpaint. Instagram: @damondavis. 

MADAD and Marcis Curtis, Sophie Lipman, Derek Laney, Elizabeth Vega, Mirror Casket in Protest, St. Louis, 2014 (Courtesy of the Artists).