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On Monday, March 29th from 6-7pm, the History Department and Africana Studies Program invite the UTC and Chattanooga communities to engage in a virtual conversation about “The Future of Confederate Monuments” with Virginia Tech professor and artist Meredith Drum. Professor Drum will speak for 15-20 minutes about her Monument Public Address System project and exhibition, reserving the remainder of this 60-minute event for audience questions and discussion. See the talk description, Meredith Drum’s bio, and the Zoom info below, and please direct any questions about this event to Mike Thompson at Michael-D-Thompson@utc.edu.
Talk Title: The Future of Confederate Monuments
Talk Description: During this talk, Virginia Tech Assistant Professor Meredith Drum will present her on-going mobile augmented reality project Monument Public Address System. The initiative examines monuments, particularly Confederate monuments, as shapers of our culture, values, beliefs, and our social and political behavior. Issues of race, memorialization, the public memory of slavery, and racial oppression are especially lively, especially important right now. A series of tragic murders of Black Americans have sparked the Black Lives Matter movement and have led to an international reckoning with symbols of racism, slavery, and colonialism. Protestors, journalists, academics, students, politicians, and others have debated the relationship between racism and Confederate symbols for decades. With this project, Drum aims to support democratic processes in cities, towns, and neighborhoods by presenting thoughtful narratives about the history and future of Confederate monuments.
Monument Public Address System is currently part of an exhibition at Chattanooga’s Stove Works art space. As part of preparing for this exhibition, Drum interviewed several amazing Chattanooga residents: artist and educator Charlie Newton, community organizer Michael Gilliland, and artist and lawyer Josiah Golson. She will share short sections of these interviews during her talk at UTC.
Meredith Drum’s Bio: Meredith Drum is an Assistant Professor of Creative Technologies in the School of Visual Arts at Virginia Tech. Her projects have been supported by grants and residencies from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, iLand, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Wassaic Project, the Experimental Television Center, ChaNorth, the University of California Institute for Research in the Arts, HASTAC, and the New York State Council on the Arts. She exhibits frequently in NYC at a variety of venues including Microscope Gallery, Anthology Film Archives, Recess Art, Light Year, ISSUE Project Room, and Works on Water on Governors Island. Internationally, her research and artwork have been part of the International Symposium of Electronic Art (ISEA) 2020 in Montreal, CA; ISEA 2018 in Durban, South Africa; ISEA 2017 in Colombia; ISEA 2013 in Dubai; and Museo Valenciano de la Illustracion y la Modernidad in Valencia, ES.
Zoom Link and Password:
Topic: The Future of Confederate Monuments
Time: Mar 29, 2021 06:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://tennessee.zoom.us/j/96127008554
Password: 650456
Or iPhone one-tap (US Toll): +13126266799,96127008554# or +16468769923,96127008554#
Or Telephone:
Dial:
+1 312 626 6799 (US Toll)
+1 646 876 9923 (US Toll)
+1 301 715 8592 (US Toll)
+1 346 248 7799 (US Toll)
+1 669 900 6833 (US Toll)
+1 253 215 8782 (US Toll)
Meeting ID: 961 2700 8554
International numbers available: https://tennessee.zoom.us/u/acgv568EwX
Or an H.323/SIP room system:
H.323: 162.255.37.11 (US West) or 162.255.36.11 (US East)
Meeting ID: 961 2700 8554
Password: 650456
Password: 650456