We recently had the pleasure of hosting an overnight archiving and research session with Jerald Cooper, better known by his nom de guerre: hoodmidcenturymodern. Through Hoodmidcenturymodern, Cooper archives, documents, and educates the masses on unsung or previously undervalued architectural and design gems. By connecting the dots via sports, music, and fashion, posts contextualize trends, arcs in the architectural zeitgeist, and go deep on finding how certain things simply came to be. 

Cincinnati-based, Cooper made the journey to New York and welcomed a selection of his followers to take residence at 76 Bowery. Members of the vowels and Hood Century team led workshops on archival practices, conversations on the Ghanaian concept of sankofa, and granted participants access to our research library. In addition to uncovering and scanning our collection of printed matter, Cooper photographed and documented 76 Bowery in its current state, prior to the arrival of our Autumn-Winter 2024 collection.

Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

vowels: What does archiving mean to you?

Jerald Cooper: It's funny because I'm traveling with pieces from my personal archive right now. I have a little Rimowa Safari case (aka the Jeep case) that I bring everywhere I go, with mementos and keepsakes. It’s truly a central part of my day-to-day.

Archiving to me boils down to this really interesting idea of presenting something that people may or may not have seen, and because time has passed or that something is presented in a different medium it offers a whole new context to be considered.

v: What did you take away from the 24 hour project?

JC: That idea that spending time intentionally with people and using archiving and research as the central reason, you get to know those people and the material you’re looking at in a really intimate way. That feeling of sleeping over at your cousins house, when you start to interact and connect with a space and people in a deeper way.

v: Were there any standout finds you and the team found in the vowels Research Library?

JC: One of the first magazines I saw when I walked in turned out to be the most influential on this trip: a Studio Voice from 1998 with an outstretched mid-rebound Dennis Rodman on the back cover. It made me think “what a cool combination of Japanese architecture and design focused publication,” mixing this other cultural moment taking place in a Chicago basketball arena. It's like if the hood was talking about architecture and design, that image is something we'd put on a cover.

Thank you to the Hood Century team for visiting our space and allowing us to be part of your educational process. 

Access to the Research Library at 76 Bowery is available by appointment.

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