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From Absence to Presence, The Commemorative to Enslaved Peoples of Southern Maryland (St. Mary's College of Maryland)

Description

Abstract:
The installation is shaped to evoke the frame of a slave cabin, constructed from alternating horizontal rows of wooden clapboards and mirror-polished, stainless-steel panels. The reflective surfaces mirror the surrounding environment, while the hollow interior, which is inaccessible to the public, suggests a private space for reflection and introspection. Inscribed across the stainless-steel panels are redacted text from slave advertisements and runaway slave notices from Southern Maryland—erasure poetry by Quenton Baker—that extend across the walls and roof, weaving erased memory and acts of commemoration into the entire structure.
Notes:
From Absence to Presence, The Commemorative to Enslaved Peoples of Southern Maryland (St. Mary's College of Maryland), Brown University Library
Digital object made available by: Brown University Library, Center for Digital Scholarship, Box A, Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912, U.S.A., (http://library.brown.edu/)

Access Conditions

Rights
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Restrictions on Use
Collection is open for research.

Citation

Ater, Renée, "From Absence to Presence, The Commemorative to Enslaved Peoples of Southern Maryland (St. Mary's College of Maryland)" (2020). Universities and Slavery. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:8bbq23u3/

Relations

Collection:

  • Universities and Slavery

    The monuments in this collection examine the intertwined histories of American universities and slavery. In his book, Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities (2013), Craig Steven Wilder examines how universities and colleges were established …

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