A plastic-covered couch in the living room—pristine, untouchable, a declaration of value wrapped in the language of protection—has long held special meaning for generations of Black families. Now that intimate domestic ritual has been transformed into a traveling work of art asking communities across America to name what deserves preserving.
Protect Our Piece arrives in Brooklyn this weekend at CultureCon as both installation and invitation. The project centers a custom couch hand-stitched with 19 pieces of Black cultural significance: Black joy, historically Black colleges and universities, Black-owned businesses, Black media and the Black vote. All are preserved under clear plastic that echoes the protective coverings of family living rooms.
The idea came from Danielle Young, an art director at advertising firm BarkleyOKRP, drawing from her own grandmother's home. Young understood immediately that this wasn't personal nostalgia dressed up as art.
"The plastic-covered couch was more than just a couch," Young said. "You understood it was protected because it was valuable. So many Black people share that experience, and at a time when parts of our culture risk being lost or erased, the idea of protecting what matters feels especially powerful."
Chicago fiber artist Chelsea B., known for vibrant custom crochet work and collaborations with Nike, Jordan, Adidas and artists like Lizzo and Megan Thee Stallion, realized the concept through meticulous hand-stitching. Each piece on the couch represents a deliberate choice about what Black culture the creators believed worth preserving.
"The idea was always bigger than the couch itself," Chelsea B. said. "Every place it goes gives more people a chance to see themselves in the work and think about what they want to protect and carry forward."
What distinguishes Protect Our Piece as a cultural project is its refusal to be static. The installation isn't a finished artifact locked behind museum glass—it's designed to grow.
At CultureCon this weekend, registered attendees can submit nominations for pieces of Black culture that deserve protection. As themes emerge and resonate across submissions, some of those ideas will be added to the couch itself through new stitching and new stories. The artwork changes as it travels, becoming a collaborative archive of Black cultural values in real time.
The couch was first unveiled around Juneteenth. The creators are positioning this as the beginning of a national tour through galleries, cultural institutions and public spaces. Young has voiced an ambitious vision, imagining the piece eventually traveling to the Smithsonian or finding a permanent home at the Obama Presidential Center—destinations that signal her thinking about institutional recognition of contemporary Black cultural work.
For now, the couch remains in New York through November. Anyone can participate in the archive-building process either in person at CultureCon or online at ProtectOurPiece.com.
Protect Our Piece runs at CultureCon in Brooklyn on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 3-4 from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Building 216, 63 Flushing Ave., second floor. Access is available to registered CultureCon attendees and press. Follow the project on Instagram at @ProtectOurPiece.
