"NMAAM covers the whole of the Black music experience. The collection, which includes audio and video files, costumes, posters, instruments, photographs and more, is organized by genre and chronology. The material is designed to be interactive, and visitors can see where musicians got their influences and then who influenced them. The museum goes in-depth, covering both well-known performers and those whose names are otherwise lost to history. The entire collection is permanent, but because so much of it is how you interact with it—do you try to record your own song, listen to different artists—it never feels like the same place twice. And as the cornerstone of the mammoth Fifth + Broadway complex (a destination in and of itself with restaurants, live music venues, and shops), it still never feels crowded thanks to timed ticketing." - Margaret Littman