LIVESTREAM (Keynotes and Panels) - Monument Lab Summit 2024

Monument Lab is a nonprofit public art and history studio based in Philadelphia that is among the country’s leading voices making generational change in how monuments live in public. As a team of artists, curators, and researchers, Monument Lab critically engages our inherited symbols in order to unearth the next generation of monuments that elevate stories and systems of belonging. Since 2012, Monument Lab has produced groundbreaking public art exhibitions, participatory research initiatives, media projects, civic and municipal partnerships, and site-specific commissions and workshops. Monument Lab is based in Philadelphia, with team members and collaborators located across the United States, its territories, and beyond. For more information and to support, visitMonumentLab.com

Monument Lab

​​The 2024 Monument Lab Summit in Philadelphia will bring together thought leaders influencing and innovating the monument landscape.

Monument Lab Summit 2024 Keynotes & Panels

​​The 2024 Monument Lab Summit in Philadelphia will bring together thought leaders influencing and innovating the monument landscape through groundbreaking forms of commemoration, acknowledgment, justice, and belonging.

Our In-person Summit passes are now sold out, Livestream passes are still available for all keynotes and panels, see below for all details: ​​The 2024 Monument Lab Summit in Philadelphia will bring together thought leaders influencing and innovating the monument landscape through groundbreaking forms of commemoration, acknowledgment, justice, and belonging around the theme of “Past is Presence.” Monument Lab will gather the monument changemaking community to elevate the power of coalitional public memory and art. At the Summit, we will convene artists, curators, grassroots organizers, federal officials, municipal and civic workers, educators, students, and more from around the country for keynotes, panels, workshops, and field trips. Major support for the Monument Lab Summit is provided by the Mellon Foundation. The Livestream Pass includes online access to all panels and keynote presentations at the Summit Confirmed presenters include: Elizabeth Alexander (President, Mellon Foundation), Sonya Clark (Artist, Declaration House), Andrew M. Davenport (Director, Getting Word African American Oral History Project at Monticello), Erica Armstrong Dunbar (Historian, Author of Never Caught), Paul Farber (Director, Monument Lab), Salamishah Tillet (Scholar, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic for The New York Times), Gayle Jessup White (Public Relations and Community Engagement Officer at Monticello, author of Reclamation), and Yolanda Wisher (Senior Curator, Monument Lab). Full bios for presenters can be found <a href="https://monumentlab.com/bulletin/advanced-registration-is-live-2024-monument-lab-summit" title="https://monumentlab.com/bulletin/advanced-registration-is-live-2024-monument-lab-summit" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">here</a>. Major support for the Monument Lab Summit has been provided by the Mellon Foundation, with additional support from Stardust Arts, the Center for Public Art &amp; Space at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, Forman Arts Initiative, The Hearthland Foundation, Open Society Foundations, the Philadelphia Foundation, and Wagner Foundation. Support for Declaration House has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts &amp; Heritage.

<h3>LIVESTREAM SCHEDULE: DAY 1: Thursday, July 18</h3>  Welcome: Past is Presence 10:00 AM–11:00 AM Remarks: Paul Farber (Director, Monument Lab), Elizabeth Alexander (President, Mellon Foundation), Tiffany Tavarez (Board Chair, Monument Lab), and Yolanda Wisher (Senior Curator, Monument Lab) Keynote Conversation – Getting Word: Origins &amp; Outcomes of Our Nation’s Founding 11:00 AM–12:00 PM Explore the untold stories and lasting impacts of America's founding through the lens of diverse narratives and historical truths, reshaping our understanding of national identity and justice. Poem: Kai Davis (Philadelphia Poet Laureate, 2024-25) Moderator: Justin Garrett Moore (Program Director, Humanities in Place, Mellon Foundation) Keynote Speakers: Erica Armstrong Dunbar (Writer, Historian, Lecturer) and Andrew M. Davenport (Director of African American History &amp; The Getting Word African American Oral History Project, Thomas Jefferson Foundation’s Monticello) Panel – Possible Futures: Visions of Democracy &amp; Belonging 1:30 PM–2:30 PM Envision democratic societies that foster belonging and equity, highlighting innovative approaches to public engagement and community-building. Poem: Alexis Pauline Gumbs, “kapoi” (Writer, Dramaturg, Facilitator, 2024 Monument Lab Fellow) Moderator: Wit López (Artist, Community Archivist, Radical Social Change Philanthropist) Panelists: Paul Ramírez Jonas (Artist; Professor, Cornell University), Laura Huerta Migus (Deputy Director, Institute of Museum and Library Services), and Jane Golden (Executive Director, Mural Arts Philadelphia) Break 2:30 PM–2:50 PM Panel – Mapping Memory: Communing with the Landscape 2:50 PM–3:50 PM Consider how landscapes serve as living archives of memory and history, and learn about the collaborative efforts to preserve and interpret these spaces for future generations. Poem: Imani Jacqueline Brown, “Black Ecologies: an opening, an offering” (excerpt)(Artist, Activist, Curator, Writer, Architectural Researcher, 2024 Monument Lab Fellow) Moderator: Anna Arabindan-Kesson (Art Historian, Writer, Co-Curator, Declaration House) Panelists: Niya Bates (Public and Architectural Historian), and Dr. Joy Banner (Co-Founder and Co-Director, The Descendants Project) and Jo Banner (Co-Founder and Co-Director, The Descendants Project)  Break 3:50 PM–4:10 PM Panel – Courage &amp; Healing: What Do We Do With the Ghosts? 4:10 PM–5:10 PM Delve into the complex process of addressing historical trauma through art and public memory, exploring pathways to communal healing and reconciliation. Poem: Fady Joudah, “Dear […]” (Poet, Physician, 2024 Monument Lab Fellow) Moderator: Arielle Julia Brown (Performance Curator and Cultural Producer, Black Spatial Relics) Panelists: Michelle Browder (Artist, Activist, Creator of Mothers of Gynecology Monument), Cannupa Hanska Luger (Artist, 2024 Monument Lab Fellow), Patrick Weems (Executive Director, Emmett Till Interpretive Center) Break 5:10 PM-5:30 PM Keynote Conversation – From Declaration to Reclamation &amp; Back 5:30 PM–7:00 PM Reflect on the journey from the foundational ideals of the Declaration of Independence to contemporary efforts of historical reclamation and reinterpretation, highlighting the ongoing quest for justice and inclusion. Poem &amp; Moderator: Yolanda Wisher (Senior Curator, Monument Lab) Keynote Speakers: Sonya Clark (Lead Artist, Declaration House) and Jane Kamensky (President, Thomas Jefferson Foundation’s Monticello)<h3> DAY 2: Friday, July 19</h3> Keynote – Reimagining Commemoration 6:00 PM–7:30 PM Learn how modern commemorative practices can honor diverse histories and narratives, fostering a more inclusive and accurate representation of our shared past. Poem: Trapeta B. Mayson (Philadelphia Poet Laureate Emerita) Welcome: Paul Farber (Director, Monument Lab) Keynote Speaker: Elizabeth Alexander (President, Mellon Foundation) Moderator: Salamishah Tillet (Scholar, Activist, Critic, Curator)

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