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Joy comes in the morning









Since the City of Boston abandoned the historic Franklin Park in the 1970s, Black and Brown communities have actively revived the park’s existing ecologies through low-maintenance methods. The project honors these communities by elevating burial rituals in the neighborhood. The design proposes harnessing morning light in a new cemetery that preserves the importance of the neighborhood park.




Recalling themes from Dogon cosmology and gospel, JOY COMES IN THE MORNING connects public visitors to the landscape through ephemeral “rooms” of light symbolic of revival. At dawn, the site is quiet. As warmth of the sun emerges, the site becomes a metaphor of renewal.

By providing both burial ground and communal space, JOY COMES IN THE MORNING promotes a future where rituals from the Black communities in Boston continue to be recognized in the public realm.








“Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning.”

- Psalm 30:1







JOY COMES IN THE MORNING connects public visitors to the landscape through ephemeral showrooms of light. Families of the deceased may gather and visit small burial plots laid into textured hillsides among a series of meadows, sheltered by dense trees.















The life force that is within us all, or “asche” in Yoruba, is everlasting. The project represents this concept through a reinterpretation of artist Mikael Owunna’s photographs that display the power of the African cosmos.