Monumental

For generations, Christopher Columbus has been glorified in monument after monument across the United States. And while Columbus statues have recently started coming down, including in cities like Columbus, Ohio, the largest one in the world is standing tall - very, very tall… in a U.S. territory – the beach town of Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

In this episode, reporter and journalism professor Gisele Regatão travels to Puerto Rico and beyond to uncover the roots of Columbus’ glorification in U.S. history and why he came to be represented in so many public statues – even though he never actually set foot on the U.S. mainland. And she visits a community artist in Woodside, Queens who confronts the myth of Columbus by creating new monuments that celebrate immigrant stories.

Monuments are not immovable. What we commemorate, what we lift up, what story we tell as a nation has always been changing. How and why do monuments evolve and why are we tackling this now? We'll ask the difficult questions about the meaning they hold in our public spaces and our culture.

We'll situate this series in the current movement to remove historically inaccurate or oppressive monuments and look at how we memorialize today, from the collective outrage symbolized by George Floyd Square to the meditative urban waterfalls of the 9/11 Memorial. We’ll see how artistic responses to the “Emancipation Group”, the memorial depicting Lincoln freeing an enslaved man, can help us find new approaches to commemoration. And we'll introduce the National Monument Audit and the narratives we must challenge to move the monument conversation forward.

Monumental is produced by PRX Productions, PRX’s award-winning creative studio specializing in audio storytelling. For more about the host and the team behind Monumental, visit our website. This series is generously supported by the Mellon Foundation.

The landscape of public memory is shifting. As we re-examine the plaques in our parks and sculptures on our streets, we grapple with what to do with them. Once we learn the stories these objects tell about who we are, will tearing down statues and renaming schools be enough? Monumental interrogates the state of monuments across the country and what their future says about our own. In this 10-episode series, host, journalist and author Ashley C. Ford and a team of independent producers from around the country will piece together the complex stories behind some of the thousands of monuments that exist in every corner of the U.S. Listen to Monumental weekly on Mondays beginning October 30, 2023. Monumental is produced by PRX Productions, PRX’s award-winning creative studio specializing in audio storytelling. For more about the host and the team behind Monumental, visit our website. The series is generously supported by the Mellon Foundation.