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“I have created nothing really beautiful, really lasting, but if I can inspire one of these youngsters to develop the talent I know they possess, then my monument will be in their work.”
Art
Kara Walker and MONUMENTS
Kara Walker’s Unmanned Drone (2023–2025) will be the centerpiece of MONUMENTS, a major exhibition opening October 23 at The Brick and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA). Walker, renowned for her cut-paper silhouettes and large-scale works confronting race, gender, and American history, has dismantled Charlottesville’s decommissioned equestrian statue of Confederate general Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and reconfigured it into a radically new form. She has described the new sculpture as a “Frankenstein’s monster of itself” and a “ghostly apparition.” The work compels viewers to question the narratives embedded in the monuments we inherit.
MONUMENTS marks the recent wave of monument removals as a historic turning point. Bringing together decommissioned Confederate statues with works by 18 contemporary artists—including Bethany Collins, Karon Davis, Jon Henry, and Abigail DeVille—the exhibition explores how the legacies of the Civil War, slavery, and racial inequality continue to shape our present.
Pictured above is the July 2021 dismantling of the Stonewall Jackson equestrian monument in Charlottesville, Virginia, following years of public controversy.
The statue was acquired by the Brick for $50,000, and given to Kara Walker as new material for her commission. Pictured above are progress photos of Walker’s highly anticipated installation.
Music
Mavis Staples
In 2017, the same year white supremacists marched through Charlottesville, Virginia carrying torches and shouting slurs, musical legend Mavis Staples responded with a soulful song and a video telling the story of hope in a future where monuments to hate are torn down.
The video for “If All I Was Was Black,” filmed in New Orleans just 10 months following the city’s removal of three Confederate statues in May 2017, finds the legendary singer watching from a restaurant as a statue of an African-American woman is unveiled where a monument to Confederate leader Jefferson Davis once stood. The piece includes shots of what used to be the bases of the three monuments as well as an empty platform that hosted Durham, North Carolina’s memorial for Confederate soldiers until protestors toppled it in August 2017.
Staples headlined our stage at JusticeAid’s 2021 fall concert to benefit the Neighborhood Defender Service at Washington, DC’s Lincoln Theatre.
Film
How the Monuments Came Down
Virginia has more Confederate monuments than any other state—including five large tributes on a mansion-lined stretch of the capital. How the Monuments Came Down reveals the historic roots of white supremacy and Black resistance in Richmond since the end of the Civil War. Through the voices of long-time Richmonders, activists, elected officials, journalists, and historians, this penetrating feature-length documentary film uncovers how Confederate monuments came to shape Richmond’s landscape and why protestors demanded they come down. Stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App.
Featured Writing
Savage’s Lift Every Voice and Sing, a 16-foot monument unveiled at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, celebrated African Americans’ contributions to music—though only briefly as the work was never cast in bronze and was later destroyed. For the full story, read the NY Historical’s Artist Augusta Savage and the Tragic Story of Her Lost Masterwork.
Graven Images: The Tumultuous Life and Times of Augusta Savage Harlem Renaissance Sculptor by Gail Tanzer
This 2022 biography sheds light on the life of Augusta Savage (1892–1962), a brilliant yet often overlooked artist of the Harlem Renaissance. Savage is best remembered as a pivotal sculptor, art educator, and activist, celebrated for her portraits of prominent Black leaders, her influence on the next generation of artists, and for her iconic monument sculpture, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
In 1932, she opened the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts in Harlem, where she inspired prominent artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Gwendolyn Knight, and Norman Lewis. In 1937, she established the WPA-funded Harlem Community Art Center and became its first director, dedicating her career to elevating Black culture and ensuring opportunities for Black artists.
