God’s Secrets Selected for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture Next Tech Lab
God’s Secrets: An Immersive Art Experience, a traveling chair installation created through Christians for Social Action’s Storytellers Collective, has been selected for Next Tech Lab at the 2026 Forward Religions Conference, presented by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The installation will be featured Saturday, November 14, at the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building in Washington, DC. Its selection follows a previous display at the Washington National Cathedral, bringing the project’s exploration of Black Christian faith and freedom to another prominent cultural setting.
Designed by multidisciplinary artist Shabazz Larkin and narrated by historian Dr. Jemar Tisby, God’s Secrets invites visitors to take a seat and encounter stories of people whose contributions to movements for freedom have often been overlooked.
Three audio narratives explore Anna Murray Douglass, whose support helped make Frederick Douglass’s escape from slavery possible; civil rights leader and preacher Prathia Hall; and the Savannah Colloquy, an 1865 meeting of Black ministers whose call for land and autonomy helped shape Special Field Order No. 15.
Each story lasts approximately eight minutes, with the full experience running about 25 minutes. The installation combines visual art, sound, narration, and selected AI-assisted voice dramatizations. Those dramatizations are identified as creative interpretations based on historical accounts, rather than original recordings.
In its September 30 acceptance letter, the museum’s Center for the Study of African American Religious Life noted that God’s Secrets stood out among a large pool of applicants for its relevance to the conference theme, “Welcome Home,” and its interactive storytelling.