Black Memory in Take Your Bags: Experimental Film and the Meaning of Material Objects

Michele Y. Washington is a designer, researcher, black memory worker, podcaster, and writer. Her writings have been featured in The Black Experience in Design, Wonder City of the World: New York City Travel Posters, and Everlasting Plastics: Evoking Objects of Change. She also has a forthcoming book in the works, I Didn’t Know They Were Black, 2026. She has previously taught in the Graduate Exhibition and Experience Design Program at the Fashion Institute of Technology, CUNY, and Pratt Institute. Michele serves on the BlackSpace Urbanists Collective board and the advisory boards for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Indigo Arts Alliance, and the Poster House Museum. In her free time, she loves making collages, knitting quirky objects, and screen printing.