FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 21, 2022
Contact: Morris Sinclair / morris@motherland.media / (301) 960-7469
SELMA, Ala. – At 3:00 p.m. today, the Blank Slate: Hope For a New America exhibit will be placed at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The monument, a Wi-Fi enabled interactive work of art made collaboratively by renowned Ghanian sculptor Kwame Akoto-Bamfo and artist Brendan Burke, has been touring since 2021 as a bold counterpoint and challenge to the more than 2,000 Confederate symbols still on display in public spaces across the United States.
The placement of the Blank Slate Monument at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, named after a Confederate general and reputed Ku Klux Klan leader, will be the first time the Blank Slate Monument stands alongside an active Confederate symbol on public land.
“Confederate monuments are intimidating. The Confederate generals the monuments celebrate look down on others. With the Blank Slate, the people stand atop each other to get higher together, to speak truth to power.” – artist Kwame Akoto-Bamfo.
The Blank Slate Monument is traveling on a flatbed truck to cities that are important to African American history, including those with a painful legacy of racial injustice and Black perseverance such as Louisville, KY; Princeton, IN; Detroit, MI; Chicago, IL; Pittsburgh, PA; Philadelphia, PA; New York City; Washington DC; Charlotte, NC; Atlanta, GA; and most recently debuted in Alabama at the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Civil Rights Memorial Center in Montgomery and later at ArtsRevive in Selma.
After this event, the piece will be moved to ArtsRevive for a period of time and then prepared for private sale and moved to a permanent location.
Unveiling Ceremony of the Blank Slate Monument on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL:
• Monday, November 21 at 3:00 p.m. CT
• The Blank Slate Monument will be available to the public for observation, reflection, and participation in community conversation through an interactive “Blank Slate” screen at the top of the statue.
Akoto-Bamfo’s mission behind the monument and tour is to use art to forward the racial and social justice movements, help inspire the healing of the nation, and elevate the voices of the silenced and oppressed by giving people a platform to let themselves be heard. There must be more public recognition of Black art and artists.
“The Blank Slate is my contribution to the pain of my Black American siblings. It’s not meant to relive the African American experience. I want to take on racism. It’s a problem for everyone with Black skin. The Blank Slate Monument is a call to action for me by using art to realize that the living conditions of Blacks in America and in the world – racial justice and equality – is a human rights issue,” adds Akoto-Bamfo.
Best known for his outdoor “Nkyinkyim Installation” sculpture dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Transatlantic slave trade displayed at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, Akoto-Bamfo created the Blank Slate Monument to challenge the overwhelming prevalence of this legacy by raising awareness of the entrenched issues in each city and inspire a dialogue for a more hopeful future. The statue is unapologetic in its representation of American history in the midst of today’s racial crisis, and is a visual representation of the evolution of the African American experience and struggle — from the millions of enslaved men and women who were crucial to the foundation of the US, to the Black soldiers who died fighting in the Civil War, to the more recent lives of those taken by law enforcement.
For more information, visit www.blankslatemonument.com.
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About the Blank Slate Monument
The Blank Slate statue features four figures that symbolize the generational struggles in the African American experience: a slave ancestor, a lynched union soldier martyr, a struggling mother activist, and a baby representing the next generation. Whereas Confederate heroes are typically depicted standing atop “pedestals of privilege,” the figures in Blank Slate are standing on top of the only thing they have – each other. This is a compelling representation of how only through generations of determined cooperation can the underprivileged elevate each other enough to have a voice to speak truth to power. The monument culminates in an interactive protest sign held by the mother figure at the top, symbolizing the unwritten future of hope and healing. Through a dedicated Wi-Fi system, the public can share their ideas and hopes for creating positive change in this country on the screen. The “Blank Slate” will be integrated with a #BlankSlateHope social media campaign.
Kwame Akoto-Bamfo created the Blank Slate statue to pay tribute to the African American experience, challenge the overwhelming prevalence of the Confederate legacy in the United States, and inspire a dialogue for a more hopeful future. The statue is unapologetic in its representation of American history in the midst of today’s racial crisis, and is a visual representation of the evolution of the African American experience and struggle—from the millions of enslaved men and women who were crucial to the foundation of the United States, to the Black soldiers who died fighting in the Civil War, to the more recent lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Winston Smith, Duante Wright, and innumerable others.
About Kwame Akoto-Bamfo
Kwame Akoto-Bamfo is a Ghanaian sculptor best known for his outdoor “Nkyinkyim Installation” sculpture dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Transatlantic slave trade displayed at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. He created the Blank Slate statue to challenge the overwhelming prevalence of this legacy by raising awareness of the entrenched issues in each city, and inspire a dialogue for a more hopeful future.
The statue will be unveiled in Louisville, Kentucky on June 2nd, and travel to locations including Chicago, Selma, Birmingham, and more. In each city, the statue will be available to the public for several days for observation, reflection, and participation in the conversation through the interactive Blank Slate screen. The tour will also include events with local elected officials, activists, arts & cultural figures, and local students, including a series of town halls. The town halls will create an open dialogue among community members on different aspects of racial injustice: community safety, health disparities, voting rights, the criminal legal system, education, and more.
Each city on the tour has its own historical and painful legacy of racial injustice. Akoto-Bamfo, best known for his outdoor “Nkyinkyim Installation” sculpture dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Transatlantic slave trade displayed at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, created the Blank Slate statue to challenge the overwhelming prevalence of this legacy by raising awareness of the entrenched issues in each city and inspire a dialogue for a more hopeful future. The statue is unapologetic in its representation of American history in the midst of today’s racial crisis and is a visual representation of the evolution of the African American experience and struggle— from the millions of enslaved men and women who were crucial to the foundation of the U.S., to the Black soldiers who died fighting in the Civil War, to the more recent lives of George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, Duante Wright, and innumerable others.
The Blank Slate statue features four figures that symbolize the generational struggles in the African American experience: a slave ancestor, a lynched union soldier martyr, a struggling mother activist, and a baby representing the next generation.
Whereas Confederate heroes are typically depicted standing atop “pedestals of privilege”, the figures in Blank Slate are standing on top of the only thing they have—each other— a powerful representation of how only through generations of determined cooperation can the underprivileged elevate each other enough to have a voice to speak truth to power.
The monument culminates in an interactive protest sign held by the mother figure at the top, a literal blank slate symbolizing the unwritten future of hope and healing, that will serve to amplify the voices of the public and share their thoughts and hopes to the world in real time. Through a dedicated WiFi system, the public can share on the screen their ideas and hopes for creating positive change in this country. The blank slate will be integrated with a #BlankSlateHope social campaign.
“Blank is the slate that we write on, but we see through. I sculpt yes, but the statement is not my own. The statement is for the people, the African American people, the black people, and people who want to speak up against the tradition of injustice. That is why the slate is left blank,” Kwame Akoto-Bamfo shares about his vision for Blank Slate.
The Blank Slate statue will remain on display in Birmingham, Alabama until March 2022 when it is moved to a permanent location, determined by a multi-city bidding process.