Monument Lab is proud to announce Bulletin Issue 02, a print journal focused on crucial and creative ideas in public art, history, and design. This issue, themed Reverence, was co-edited by Monument Lab Senior Curator Yolanda Wisher in collaboration with Patrick Weems and Daphne R. Chamberlain of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center.
Beginning in 2022, we launched a nationwide field building initiative organized around a central question: Which stories belong in public? Monument Lab –Re:Generation offers responses through creative and impactful local projects of reclamation that provide a deeper understanding of how monuments live and function in communities.
“If you see me, then weep” is an English translation of the German “Wenn du mich siehst, dann weine.” These words are carved into a centuries-old hunger stone, or a stone monolith left to weather at the bottom of the Elbe River and discovered in 2022, when the water receded to levels not seen in a hundred years or more. The dire warning is evocative, the use of “if” signaling to the reader that the “me” may never be seen.
A Long Walk Home (ALWH), an arts organization that empowers young people to end violence against girls and women, is building an enduring monument to honor Rekia Boyd and Black Girlhood within Chicago’s Douglass Park in the North Lawndale neighborhood.
There is a name in the Haitian Creole language for women like Naomieh Jovin's mother: “Gwo Fanm.” Literally, “Big Woman,” a Gwo Fanm is a woman who stands out in life and stands up for the ones she loves. Centering around the women in her family as well as her own role in her family’s history, Jovin's Gwo Fanm photo essay consists of found images, original photography, audio interviews, and installations.
The gruesome monstrosity of whiteness undergirds America’s systems—haunting its public spaces, pedestals, and policies. Where do we go from here? This essay was originally published by Monument Lab on October 31, 2020. Since then, the monument of Robert E. Lee in Richmond was removed by the state in September 2021.