The World of Amaza Lee Meredith

Saint Heron Press, in tandem with The Saint Heron Library, has released Azurest Blue: The Life and Legacy of Amaza Lee Meredith, a beautifully researched journal devoted to the life of the pioneering Black queer architect, artist, and educator Amaza Lee Meredith (1895–1984). Edited by Solange Knowles, the volume is both a scholarly archive and a narrative meditation, filled with Meredith’s personal correspondence, architectural blueprints, annotated documents, and photographs. 

Five commissioned essays by contemporary voices, like Pascale Sablan, Briona Simone Jones, and Jerald “Coop” Cooper, turn what might have easily been a simple biographical monograph into a generational conversation, tracing how Meredith’s vision of home, community, and self-determination resonates today. 

Meredith’s modernist home, Azurest South (now part of Virginia State University), was not only her residence but a laboratory for creativity and autonomy; her work in Sag Harbor’s Azurest North laid the groundwork for a Black seaside community. Despite the marginalization she faced, her design methodology embraced experimentation and care. saintheron.com