{"id":13526,"date":"2020-05-22T16:22:17","date_gmt":"2020-05-22T16:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artjournalstg.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=13526"},"modified":"2020-05-22T17:31:48","modified_gmt":"2020-05-22T17:31:48","slug":"just-being-reflections-on-the-national-memorial-for-peace-and-justice-the-legacy-museum-and-the-national-museum-for-african-american-history-and-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/artjournal.collegeart.org\/?p=13526","title":{"rendered":"Just Being"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Prefatory note, in the time of COVID-19<\/em>: When I started this project, it was unimaginable that museums would be shuttered indefinitely and that we would all be in self-isolation, clinging to virtual reality for sporadic shards of normalcy. As I revisited my dialogue with Blake Bradford during the editorial process, it seemed to me that our exchanges in real life, in real space, could serve as a proxy visit to these unique and vital museums and monuments. Blake and I were unable to meet in Montgomery, Alabama, which itself requires some effort to reach from New York City and Philadelphia, and so we began our conversation, which we did not record, on the phone. Blake and I had already (separately) visited the National Museum for African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution (NMAAHC), in Washington, DC, before our respective visits to Montgomery, and so we had the NMAAHC model in mind as the looming point of comparison in the intimate and emotive spaces of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) museum and memorial. Blake and I agreed that the EJI was a powerful testament and indictment of American history, and we wanted to highlight it as a kind of critical counterpoint to the NMAAHC project in Washington, knowing full well that Montgomery would receive a small fraction of the traffic. I begin with a short topographical description of Montgomery and the EJI, which is followed by an edited transcription of the conversations that Blake and I had in Washington, walking through the galleries of NMAAHC. I invite you to come along, think with us, perhaps argue with us, and keep the conversation going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Risham Majeed
May 17, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"View<\/a>
Barachias Holt, State Capitol Building, Montgomery, Alabama, 1850\u201351 (all photographs by Risham Majeed unless otherwise noted)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Montgomery, Alabama, and Washington, DC<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

And the Northern Negro in the South sees, whatever he or anyone else may wish to believe, that his ancestors are both white and black. The white men, flesh of his flesh, hate him for that very reason.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2014James Baldwin1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In what relation do we stand to our ancestors if we insist we cannot now even stand to hear or see what they themselves had no choice but to live through? Is not the least we owe the sufferings of the past a full and frank accounting of them?. . . What is the appropriate level of interest in the interrelation of sex and violence in our history?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Zadie Smith2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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