Sekou Cooke is the curator of Close to the Edge: The Birth of Hip-Hop Architecture, an exhibition surveying the movement of Hip-Hop Architecture at the AIANY Center for Architecture in October 2018. The exhibition exhibits the work of students, academics, and practitioners at the center of an emerging architectural movement. It includes work by over 20 participants representing seven countries, with projects ranging across a variety of media and forms of expression: from experimental visualizations and installations, to façade studies, building designs, and urban development proposals.

In aggregate, these projects reveal a collective vision for alternative forms of expression and practice, and serve to formalize work created over almost 30 years into an emerging canon of Hip-Hop Architecture.

Since its inaugural show in New York City, it has been exhibited at the SpringBOX in St. Paul, Minnesota, the Projective Eye Gallery in Charlotte, NC, the Museum of Design Atlanta in Atlanta, GA, and the Helms Design Center in Los Angeles, CA.

Close To The Edge: The Birth of Hip- Hop Architecture was curated by Sekou Cooke. The Graphic design for the exhibition is by WeShouldDoItAll with graffiti in New York City by CHINO. Graffiti in Saint Paul was by Alex “SHOCK” Smith and Roger Cummings, in Charlotte by Joel “BLENZ” Springer and Rich “SKOLE” Lucas, in Atlanta by POEST, and in Los Angeles by PRIME. In New York photo documentation by Erik Bardin and Anthony Turner, in Saint Paul by Chad Holder, in Charlotte by Mirra Goldfrad and UNCC Galleries, and in Atlanta by Gene Phillips.