Walk into the skybridge at Providence Place mall during February and you’ll see it. Huge, vibrant banners. They’re part of an installation called “Dear Love, PVD: A Tribute to the Heartbeat of Black History.” It’s flashy. It features iconic faces like Malcolm X and references to Rhode Island’s deep-rooted Black culture.
But there’s a catch that’s been fueling heated debates across the West End and on local subreddits: the art was created using Artificial Intelligence.
Honestly, the reaction has been mixed, to put it lightly. Some folks see it as a high-tech bridge to the past. Others? They’re calling it "AI slop" that erases the very human struggle it’s supposed to honor. When we talk about Providence Place Black History AI, we aren't just talking about some cool JPEGs on a wall. We are talking about the soul of a city that literally built a mall on top of a "forgotten" Black neighborhood.
The Ghost of Snowtown Under the Food Court
Before the Cheesecake Factory and the Zara, there was Snowtown.
Most people shopping for sneakers have no clue they’re walking over what was once a thriving, interracial neighborhood. In the early 19th century, Snowtown was a refuge for newly emancipated Black Rhode Islanders. It was a place of grit. It was a place of community.
It was also the site of a brutal race riot in 1831.
White mobs, fueled by a mix of economic anxiety and straight-up racism, tore through the neighborhood. They destroyed houses. They forced families out. Decades later, the city paved it over. First with a prison, then a parking lot, and eventually, the $460 million Providence Place mall.
So, when the mall uses AI to "celebrate" Black history, it hits a nerve. You've got this machine-generated imagery sitting right on top of the actual, physical ground where real Black history was suppressed. It feels... complicated. Kinda like using a filter on a photo of a scar.
Why the "Dear Love, PVD" Project Stirred the Pot
The project was a collaboration between the mall and a local brand agency called QDXA VISION. The creator, Alex Conlon, was pretty open about the process. He didn't just type "Black history" into a prompt and hit enter. He used Photoshop to compose designs and then used AI to "add historical elements" and textures.
But the "human-quality" aspect is where things get sticky.
The AI Glitches
If you look closely at the banners—and I mean really look—the AI fingerprints are there.
- Malcolm X’s eyes: Critics pointed out they look slightly "off," a common quirk with generative models.
- Crowd Dynamics: In some pieces, the background figures melt into the scenery in a way that doesn't make physical sense.
- The "Agape" Glass: One piece features stained glass with the word "AGAPE." The lighting and text overlay have that hyper-smooth, slightly plastic AI sheen that artists can spot a mile away.
The biggest gripe from the local arts community isn't just about the aesthetics, though. It’s about the opportunity cost. Providence is a city swarming with talented Black muralists, painters, and digital illustrators. Why use an algorithm to simulate a tribute when you could pay a local human to live it?
The Counter-Argument: AI as a Tool for Access
On the flip side, Conlon argued that AI allowed for an "innovative process" to engage a younger, tech-savvy generation. By including QR codes on the pieces, the goal was to turn a shopping trip into a history lesson. For some, the AI is just a medium—like oil paint or a camera—used to bring attention to figures who might otherwise be ignored in a commercial space.
Beyond the Mall: How AI is Actually Saving Black History
While the Providence Place banners sparked a local "is it art?" debate, there is a much bigger, much more serious side to Providence Place Black History AI and similar tech.
Across the country, and even within Rhode Island research circles, AI is being used to do the "boring" work that saves lives—historically speaking.
1. Digitizing the "Undigitizable"
Groups like the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society have mountains of physical records. We’re talking 18th-century census data, handwritten letters from enslaved people, and blurry 19th-century photographs. Manually transcribing these would take lifetimes.
AI models, specifically those trained on Optical Character Recognition (OCR), are now being used to scan these archives. They can "read" old cursive that’s faded by time. This makes the history of people in Snowtown or Hardscrabble searchable. Instead of a name being buried in a box in a basement, it’s now a data point on a digital map.
2. The Griot and Grits Model
There's this project called Griot and Grits (backed by Red Hat). They are using AI to take oral histories—stories your grandma told you on the porch—and turn them into searchable, "documentary-style" archives. It uses AI to fill in the gaps, adding historical photos or context to a family story.
Imagine applying that to the families displaced by the mall's construction. You could essentially "rebuild" Snowtown in a virtual space.
The Nuance We Often Miss
We tend to look at AI in extremes: it's either a revolutionary tool or a soul-sucking replacement for humans. The reality of the Providence Place controversy is that it’s probably a bit of both.
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The mall's installation succeeded in one thing: it got people talking. People who would have normally walked to the food court without a second thought are now arguing about Malcolm X’s height or the displacement of Black neighborhoods in the 1800s.
But we have to be careful. AI is trained on data. If that data is biased—if it’s based on history books written only by the "winners"—the AI will hallucinate a version of Black history that is sanitized. It might make a riot look like a minor "dispute," or it might render Black faces with "Europeanized" features because that’s what the training set preferred.
How to Engage with This History (Without the Filters)
If you're in Providence and the AI art in the skybridge piqued your interest, don't stop there. The algorithm only knows what it's been told. You should go find the stuff it doesn't know.
Practical Next Steps for Real History:
- Take the Walking Tour: Skip the mall for an hour and do the Early Black History Walking Tour provided by the city. It covers 1636 to 1865. No AI, just the actual streets.
- Visit the RI Black Heritage Society: Located on North Main Street. See the real artifacts. Read the real papers.
- Check the Plaques: There are markers near Roger Williams National Park that commemorate the riots at Snowtown and Hardscrabble. Stand where it actually happened.
- Support Local Black Artists: Instead of "AI-assisted" agencies, look at the work being done by local collectives like The Avenue Concept. They’re the ones putting real paint on real walls.
AI is a tool, not a teacher. It can help us find the needle in the haystack of history, but it can't tell us how that needle felt when it pricked. Use the tech to find the door, but make sure you walk through it yourself.