Beyond physical markers and sites, a memorial honoring Emmett Till depends on communities to engage with larger questions around the impact of structural racism both locally and nationally. Monument Lab Fellow Patrick Weems reflects on the collaborative, collective processes of remembering Emmett Till. 

Undergirding myths of the 'Great American Desert' are overlapping histories of settler-colonialism, wartime xenophobia, and environmental racism. 

Jeanne Dreskin excavates the histories of Utah's Dugway Proving Grounds—a site for noxious biochemical weapons testing, the theft of Indigenous lands, and the incarceration of Japanese Americans during the Second World War. 

After the removal of the Columbus statue in Marconi Park, Philadelphia declared changing Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples' Day without consulting Indigenous groups in the city. Cities must work in collaboration with Native leaders and Indigenous communities to create meaningful changes in civic spaces, curricula, and cultural institutions. 

Freedom is timeless. 

Li Sumpter writes about the importance of reclaiming Philly's time, place, and history—for the people, by the people. 

Absences speak loudly.

TK Smith interrogates the relationship between power and representation in an open letter on monumental silence in the face of systemic violence. 

Beatriz Cortez's multidisciplinary work on migration and memory destabilizes notions of permanence.

Multiple temporalities collide to create space for a future defined by collaborative, intergenerational, and interspecies care.