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What's missing from the encyclopedia? This artist aims to fill in the gaps

Part 3 of the TED Radio Hour episode "How taking a second look can change your everything"

At an early age, Tavares Strachan noticed there was a lot missing from his family's encyclopedia. Today, the artist searches for lost stories to include in his own Encyclopedia of Invisibility.

About Tavares Strachan

Tavares Strachan is a conceptual artist from the Bahamas. In 2005, he gained acclaim for his conceptual artwork The Distance Between What We Have and What We Want, for which he extracted a 4.5-ton block of Arctic ice and exhibited it in a solar-powered freezer in the Bahamas. His work, The Encyclopedia of Invisibility, features thousands of entries focused on historically marginalized individuals, places and events.

Strachan is a MacArthur Fellow.

This segment of the TED Radio Hour was produced by Rachel Faulkner White and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour. You can follow us on Facebook @TEDRadioHourand email us at TEDRadioHour@npr.org.

Web Resources

Related TED Bio: Tavares Strachan
Related TED Talk: The power of an image — and the mind behind it
Related TED Talk: A 3-step guide to believing in yourself

Related NPR Links

Fresh Air: For painter Titus Kaphar, forgiveness is 'a weight lifted off of your shoulders'
The Picture Story: A look at the Met Museum's exhibition on Black dandyism
Fine Art: Painter Amy Sherald asks: What is American?

Copyright 2025 NPR

Manoush Zomorodi
Manoush Zomorodi is the host of TED Radio Hour. She is a journalist, podcaster and media entrepreneur, and her work reflects her passion for investigating how technology and business are transforming humanity.
Rachel Faulkner White
Rachel Faulkner is a producer and editor for TED Radio Hour.
Sanaz Meshkinpour
[Copyright 2024 NPR]