Future Memory

The phrase “Museums Are Not Neutral” is both a hashtag and the rallying words of a movement. This mantra has already changed the way museums are visited, curated, and protested. Amplified by our guests art worker La Tanya S. Autry and museum educator Mike Murawski, #MuseumsAreNotNeutral has been shared more than a million times online by museum curators and educators, and by colleagues in related fields like libraries and archives. We speak to Autry and Murawski about the roots of their Museums Are Not Neutral campaign, how they collaborate and build across social media, and how museums can and should transform as spaces of connection.

This episode, we speak to Nancy Hill about cultural memory and timely lessons from the 1918 pandemic. The parallels between then and now are astounding, informative, and troubling. Hill is one of the Philadelphia-based organizers of the Mütter Museum’s exhibition on the 1918 pandemic, Spit Spreads Death. She shares insights with us about how the pandemic is and is not remembered today.

This episode, we speak to Free Egunfemi Bangura about her work in “Commemorative Justice,” a term she coined. She also breaks down her projects that have left an imprint on Richmond, and how traveling outside of the country has shifted her thinking on her homegrown projects.

This episode, we speak to Laiken Jordahl, during the time of self-isolation and quarantine for COVID-19, about the accelerated pace of construction of the border wall. He shares the devastating impacts on the land and residents of the region, the ecological outcomes on endangered species and water systems, and the importance of bearing witness in the borderlands.

During the time of self-isolation and quarantine for COVID-19, we speak to Mel Chin to discuss how he and other artists stay connected, and how his new S.O.U.R.C.E. Studio has a fellowship for women, trans, and non-binary artists to spend time developing their craft. Plus, Chin shares the story of discovering that he won the prestigious MacArthur Genius award.

We speak to Paul Ramírez Jonas about the idea of Public Noise, a new proposal where he inverts the idea of an equestrian monument and presents a stage for debating what it means to occupy and tangle with public space.

Regina Agu has been researching and engaging green spaces in Houston, including Emancipation Park, especially to understand the legacy of communities of color in these spaces. As an artist, in a city where zoning laws, or lack thereof, impacts preservation, Agu also has seen the ways artists are on the forefront of innovating around and along with those parameters.

Coco Guzman is a Spanish-Canadian queer artist based in Toronto. Guzman draws, documents, and gathers stories that are public and intimate. They created Missing Democracy – modeled after pet posters posted on utility poles and community bulletin boards – where a Grumpy Cat stands in for democracy. We speak with Guzman about their approach to working on and in public spaces, especially to deal with memory as monumental in subtle, purposeful ways.

Eric García, based in Chicago, uses his political cartoons, mixed media installations, murals, hand printed posters and drawings to to engage ideas of nationalism, white supremacy, and exclusion. For his recent monumental poster, Monument to Lucy Gonzalez Parsons, he highlights a labor leader and anarchist organizer from Chicago whose impact on the history of labor is astounding. We speak to García about Parson, how he learned about her, and how he could better honor her.

Nicole Awai is an artist and educator, born in Trinidad and based in NYC and Austin, where she teaches at the University of Austin. Her monument proposal Reclaimed Water CC’d takes on the legacies of Columbus, colonialism, and the dialectic of exploration and exploitation.