Less than two weeks after it was unveiled, a ceramic bust in Oakland, California honoring Breonna Taylor was vandalized, as per The New York Times. This past Tuesday, the artist behind the work, Leo Carson, argued that the vandalized piece has now been stolen. After the piece was battered in several places, Carson set up a GoFundMe page to rebuild the broken statue in sturdier bronze material.
“The vandals are continuing their campaign of intimidation against the Black Lives Matter movement and we must resist their attempt to erase Breonna’s image,” Carson said in an Instagram post this past Tuesday. He added that he believes the bust is “likely completely destroyed.”
The ceramic bust which was emblazoned with the phrase “Say Her Name” was found vandalized the day after Christmas. It was installed in Oakland’s downtown neighborhood. The artwork paid homage to Taylor, the 26-year-old Black woman shot to death by police inside her Louisville, Kentucky apartment during a mishandled drug raid back in March.
A new GoFundMe page was launched this past Sunday to raise $5,000 USD to rebuild the work in bronze. The fundraiser surpassed its goal in less than 24 hours, topping off at $25,644 USD. Carson stated that any money not spent on reconstructing the bronze bust of Breonna Taylor will be given to her family. Oakland police are currently investigating both incidents.
After more than 140 years, Boston has finally removed the Emancipation Memorial statue standing in a park just off Boston Common.
Having stood there since 1879, the statue is based on an identical one erected in Washington, D.C. three years prior, and depicts a freed, shirtless slave rising to his feet in front of Abraham Lincoln. The monument was created to celebrate the end of slavery in the United States, being based on a Black man named Archer Alexander, who escaped slavery and helped the Union Army before being the last man recaptured under the Fugitive Slave Act.
Despite its intentions, many have perceived the statue to depict a slave kneeling before Lincoln instead, and more than 12,000 people petitioned for its removal, spurring Boston’s public arts commission to vote on the issue. The vote was unanimously passed, and the statue was finally taken down on Tuesday this week.
“The decision for removal acknowledged the statue’s role in perpetuating harmful prejudices and obscuring the role of Black Americans in shaping the nation’s freedoms,” read a statement from the commission. It is now deciding whether to move it to a museum.
No comments:
Post a Comment