As the Statues Fall: A Conversation about Monuments and the Power of Memory

On Thursday, July 23rd, the Wenner-Gren Foundation and SAPIENS in collaboration with the Society of Black Archaeologists and the Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies, hosted “As the Statues Fall: A Conversation about Monuments and the Power of Memory”.

In the wake of global civil unrest following the brutal killings of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Tony McDade, Atatiana Jefferson, Aura Rosser, Elijah McClain, and countless others at the hands of police in the United States, Black Lives Matter protestors and their allies have critiqued the anti-Black racism imbued in the erection and maintenance of Confederate historical monuments. The legacy of social movements seeking to remove Confederate statues is longstanding. However, unlike in previous moments, what began as the forced removal of Confederate statues during protests has rippled to the removal of colonialist, imperialist, and enslaver monuments all over the world. In this webinar, scholars and artists share their insights on the power of monumentality and the work they are doing to reconfigure historical markers.

Featuring:

La Vaughn Belle, Visual Artist

Nicholas Galanin, Tlingit/Unangax Multi-Disciplinary Artist

Dell Upton, PhD, Professor and Chair of Art History, UCLA

Tsione Wolde-Michael, Curator, Smithsonian-NMAH

Moderated by Tiffany Cain, PhD, Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow in the Princeton Society of Fellows

CART captioning by Joshua Edwards

We encourage you to explore the work and ideas of our panelists:

LaVaughn Belle: http://www.lavaughnbelle.com/#/i-am-queen-mary/

Nicholas Galanin: https://galan.in/

Tsione Wolde-Michael: https://www.humanityinaction.org/person/tsione-wolde-michael/

Dell Upton: https://arthistory.ucla.edu/faculty-profiles-emeritus/

Tiffany Cain: https://www.tiffanyccain.com/, follow via Twitter @tichecain

Read on:

https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300211757/what-can-and-cant-be-said

https://keywordsechoes.com/la-vaughn-belle-the-monuments-that-wont-fall

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/568c55359cadb64c7958e983/t/5e48b773bc62bd19125dfbbb/1581823887788/Lowering+the+Gaze-The+Acropodium+in+I+Am+Queen+Mary.pdf

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/568c55359cadb64c7958e983/t/5ca4d1a3fa0d6017aca17db5/1554305445903/I+Am+Queen+Mary+An+Avatar+in+The+Making.pdf

https://kunstkritikk.com/a-monumental-challenge-to-danish-history/

Follow:

SAPIENS via Twitter: https://twitter.com/SAPIENS_org (@SAPIENS_org)

Society of Black Archaeologists via Twitter: https://twitter.com/SbaArch (@SbaArch)

Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies: https://archaeology.cornell.edu/

While Wenner-Gren is proud to be providing a platform for this event, the views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Foundation.