On this episode of The Emergence Room, we are joined by Tameka Baba, a landscape architect, artist, curator, and Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome. Tameka is also a Professional Practice Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture at the Knowlton School at Ohio State University, where her work explores public space, ecology, community, and the transformation of overlooked urban landscapes.
In this conversation, we talk about representing the Midwest, teaching, growth, and the ongoing process of becoming. We reflect on how place shapes identity and creative practice, and how Tameka’s work has continued to expand across disciplines during her time in Rome.
It’s been incredible to witness her evolution from landscape architecture into a broader artistic and curatorial practice, embracing weaving, installation, research, and community-centered approaches to public space. Her work moves fluidly between design, art, and cultural storytelling, opening new ways of thinking about landscape as both social and imaginative space.
This episode is a conversation about transformation, creative expansion, and what it means to keep growing into new forms of practice and possibility.