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
The Alex Odeh Memorial Statue: A Monument of Reconciliation
While the George Floyd Protests of 2020 brought monuments of oppression into light primarily for Black Americans, social justice issues related to Palestinians came into primary focus more recently with the extreme escalation of conflict in the Gaza Strip since October 2023. However, violence in the United States against Arab Americans, including Palestinian Americans, long predates the current humanitarian crisis in the Middle East. Alex Odeh, a Palestinian-born peace activist was killed in Santa Ana in October of 1985 in a domestic terrorist attack. The Alex Odeh Memorial Statue was installed in front of the Santa Ana Central Library in 1994, but this statue has since been the target of protest and vandalism as well as used as a point of unity and celebration.
In this episode, we’ll be discussing the Alex Odeh Memorial Statue and how the monument works to reconcile the past wrongdoings against him, his family, and Arab Americans nationwide. We’re joined by his eldest daughter, Helena Odeh, to learn more about Alex Odeh’s life, work, and legacy.
Credits
Song Credits:
Melancholly Lull by Vital
Royalty Free Music: Bensound.com/royalty-free-music
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