The Monumental Project
Welcome to The Monumental Project: How Historic Sites and Monuments of Yesterday Affect Us Today. As the official companion podcast of the Monuments Toolkit program, we will be diving deep into the pieces of American history found across the nation, and how the stories they carry impact the modern day American citizen. The goal of this podcast and the program at large, is to address the question “how do we address monuments of oppression?” What are our options for dealing with painful pieces of our past? How can we learn, heal, and move forward? By the end of this season we’ll have a better understanding.
The Monumental Project
Latest Episodes
Monuments in Museums, Part 1: The Amoxtli Tezcatlipoca
When does an artifact in a museum reach "monumental" status? In this episode, we're exploring the concept of belongings as monuments, primarily focusing on the Amoxtli Tezcatlipoca (or the Codex Fejérváry-Mayer) with Meghan Backhouse from Natio...
Creative Extremism: A Conversation with Michelle Browder
What is creative extremism? Michelle Browder uses this phrase from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to describe her work as both an artist and activist in Montgomery, Alabama. In this episode, Michelle tells us about her company, ...
Protecting Freedmen's Town, Part 2: Preservation with Freedmen's Town Conservancy
In this episode, we're continuing our conversation about Freedmen's Town by turning toward some of the efforts currently happening to protect the infrastructure while also modernizing it as a livable community. We're joined by Sharon Fletcher, ...
Protecting Freedmen's Town, Part 1: History & Advocacy
In this episode, we're meeting with the folks of Freedmen's Town in Houston, Texas. Freedmen's Town is a historic neighborhood developed entirely by the formerly enslaved people of the greater Houston area after their emancipation. However, pre...
Reconciling with Fort Pillow: Interpreting New Sites with Kevin Levin
How does a historic site become a national park? In this episode, we meet with Kevin Levin, an educator and public historian who tells about the process of turning Fort Pillow into a national historic site. We discuss the history of Fort Pillow...