Join danilo machado, Lisa Anderson, and Imani Jacqueline Brown for the third installment of Conversations in the Commons. Using a combination of presentations and group discussion, our collaborators will reflect on the evolution of monuments and what it means to “monumentalize” in and for Black communities. They will explore the role monuments—as representations of White supremacy, slavery, and colonialism—have played in contributing to the degradation of Black people’s relationships to their history, culture, and environment, and how monuments may be appropriated to create and build these relationships anew. At the intersection of artistic intervention, community organizing, and historical scholarship, this conversation asks, how do we redefine “the commons”? Is the future of public space anti-monument?
Inspired by the sculptural practice of Thomas J Price and in support of his exhibition, Thomas J Price: Witness taking place in Harlem’s Marcus Garvey Park, Studio Salon: Conversations in the Commons offers participants an opportunity to examine key themes and ideas addressed in Price’s practice through works of art and literature. Salon topics include fashion, surveillance, monuments and public space, and portraiture and Black masculinity. For each session, facilitators will unpack key texts through conversation and creative prompts, as well as supplementary materials for further explorations.
Pulling from Fred Moten and Stefano Harney’s The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning and Black Study and the exhibition’s curatorial vision, Conversations in the Commons aims “to (re-)define and (re-)imagine the commons.”
This program seeks to provide opportunities to contemplate complex and abstract themes and to commune with new and existing peers.
Live CART captioning provided by Stenocaptions and ASL interpretation provided by Pro Bono ASL.