November 15, 2024
A moving examination of controversial public monuments that confronts our nation's troubled past. Weathersby, a professor of literature at Queensborough College in New York, begins with a gripping vignette in which he--a Black man--confronts a group of white supremacists defending the decommissioned monument of a Confederate military officer. It's a strong start to an often-poetic if occasionally meandering book. The title might suggest a conceptual, philosophical, or policy-driven treatment of controversial public monuments, but the book is closer to memoir, detailing the author's encounters with and reactions to public monuments and the people who defend or condemn them. Weathersby writes with passion and clarity about the shameful history of chattel slavery, racial segregation, anti-Black violence, the brutal conquest of Native Americans, and the horrors of Hurricane Katrina, weaving this history of racial humiliation and oppression into his contemporary observations about the importance of monumentality and public art. The book recounts his visits to public monuments in his native New Orleans and many other locations across the nation, such as Mount Rushmore; the site of the Battle of Wounded Knee; Richmond, Virginia--the former seat of the Confederacy; and New York City. It includes anecdotes from his life that illustrate the toll taken by racial injustice and the potential of art to both hurt and heal. Weathersby brings a cultural critic's eye to public art, explaining why monuments matter to individuals, communities, and societies. While the reader hoping for a more focused and comprehensive treatment of the controversies surrounding public monuments might be disappointed, fans of memoirs, as well as readers looking for insights into the passions that public monuments inspire, will find much of interest. A spirited and often poetic treatment of an important and timely topic.
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Starred review from December 1, 2024
"In a way, monuments accelerate forgetting, a dementia of sorts that gradually worsens as the years pass until the before eludes all recollection." So muses Weathersby as he visits some of America's most problematic landmarks of white supremacy, including Mount Rushmore, which glorifies two slaveholding presidents. Nearby, Weathersby takes hope from the soaring, awe-inspiring Crazy Horse monument. Yet nothing is simple; he learns some Native Americans see the sculpture, designed by a white outsider, as a desecration of sacred land, costing money that might have been better spent on the cash-strapped reservation. Other attempts to correct a biased narrative are more successful, such as Kehinde Wiley's glorious Rumors of War sculpture in Virginia and Montgomery's gut-wrenching monument to lynching victims, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. Yet the devaluation of Black lives is everywhere, including a WWI memorial that segregates Black and white names and the anonymity of Breonna Taylor's apartment building. Watching a city worker paint over graffiti honoring Philando Castile, Weatherby wryly notes, "I realized his life wasn't being erased as much as the story of America was being revised." A sobering elegy for all we misremember.
COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.