Racially restrictive covenants were used in real estate contracts throughout most of the 20th century to bar people of color from buying houses in certain neighborhoods across the country. Inside the Covenant Shanty the walls are covered with racially restrictive real estate contracts and a map of their use in Hennepin County, MN.

The word covenant sounds indifferent when used in a contract. But it is also used in the Judeo-Christian faith. It is a commitment between God and Abraham; a relational agreement for how to live in the world. Visitors are asked what kind of relational agreements they have or want to have and are invited to hang their thoughts on the clothesline. Visitors to the Covenant Shanty are invited to identify racially restrictive language, drawing attention to this hidden practice of inequity.

Covenant, was installed at the 2018 Art Shanty Projects, a public art event held on a frozen MN lake each January.

Covenant also exists as an installation and sculpture: a stack of 15,000 real estate contracts with racially restrictive language become the size of a human body when made physical. This was the number of racially restrictive covenants in Hennepin County, MN identified by Mapping Prejudice in 2019. Today that number has grown to 42,000.