[On November 13, 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was unveiled in Washington, DC. So for its 40th anniversary, I’ll AmericanStudy the Wall and four other unique examples of public art. Share your thoughts on these & any other public art projects you’d highlight!]
On how a
wonderful recent statue corrects a wrong and makes the case for right (and
writing).
I previously
wrote about Fern
Cunningham’s Harriet Wilson Memorial Sculpture in this
post on southern New Hampshire’s phenomenal Black Heritage Trail. Check it out
and then come on back for some additional thoughts, please.
Welcome back! Some
of the most persistent historical myths I’ve encountered among students up here
in Massachusetts/New England (and I have to believe they’re nationwide) is that
the state, region, and even the entire North were less racist (if not overtly
anti-racist), more anti-slavery, generally more enlightened on such issues than
their Southern counterparts. There are all sorts of ways to challenge those myths,
including remembering histories like those of Revolutionary-era
enslaved people and the 1830s near-lynching of
William Lloyd Garrison on the streets of Boston (or, y’know, the late 20th
centuries histories of virulent
Bostonian racism). But the stories of individuals can often resonate more
intimately and deeply than those of broader historical communities and issues,
and there are few individuals whose story more powerfully reveals the layers of
racism and prejudice in early 19th century New England than that of Harriet Wilson.
This striking statue, like the Harriet
Wilson Project that funded it, can help American audiences, including but
not at all limited to students, connect to and learn those individual and
collective stories.
While Harriet
Wilson was certainly victimized by those attitudes and issues, however, she was
most definitely not a victim. That was true of her inspiring life, and it was
even more true of the most impressive part of that life: her writing and publication
of her autobiographical novel Our
Nig: Sketches from the Life of a Free Black (1859). That groundbreaking
book is one of those that every American student should be exposed to, and an
element of her story that the statue foregrounds powerfully through both the
key detail of the book in Wilson’s hand (which I think purposefully parallels
the child she holds with her other hand—these were her two creations and
legacies) and the single word description of Wilson as “Author” on the base. I
know it’s the Lit Prof bias in me showing, but I’d say we need more public art
of American authors, and there’s no existing statue that I’d point to as a better
model than the Harriet Wilson Memorial Sculpture.
Last public art
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Other public art projects you’d highlight?
No comments:
Post a Comment