The Jim Crow Museum
I read an absolutely amazing essay tonight by the curator of the Jim Crow museum, David Pilgrim:
The Garbage Man: Why I Collect Racist Objects.
Like all good essays, it's a journey deep into the curator's soul. Yet, it's also opens a chilling window into the history of post-slavery America. By the time I finished the essay, I was silent, thoughtful, and numb.
I remember when I read Elie Wiesel's Night for the first time. I was sixteen, and I sat on my bed. My teacher had assigned Wiesel's Night as a class reading. I saw that it was a short book, so I procrastinated until late in the evening. I started reading Night at 10 p.m., and I was enthralled until dawn. It wasn't a long read, but every word sucked me in--forcing me to pause and think.
Then, in college, I read Peter Weiss' The Investigation which takes the english transcripts of the post-WWII Auschwitz trials and transforms them into five-hour play that encapsulates elegantly horrifying theater without adding a single word. It strips human brutality with a clinical precision.
I'm quiet and thoughtful tonight yet again. David Pilgrim's photo-essay on racial objects has left me thinking--for a very long time. Go read it when you're ready to spend some time thoughtfully.
The Garbage Man: Why I Collect Racist Objects.
Like all good essays, it's a journey deep into the curator's soul. Yet, it's also opens a chilling window into the history of post-slavery America. By the time I finished the essay, I was silent, thoughtful, and numb.
I remember when I read Elie Wiesel's Night for the first time. I was sixteen, and I sat on my bed. My teacher had assigned Wiesel's Night as a class reading. I saw that it was a short book, so I procrastinated until late in the evening. I started reading Night at 10 p.m., and I was enthralled until dawn. It wasn't a long read, but every word sucked me in--forcing me to pause and think.
Then, in college, I read Peter Weiss' The Investigation which takes the english transcripts of the post-WWII Auschwitz trials and transforms them into five-hour play that encapsulates elegantly horrifying theater without adding a single word. It strips human brutality with a clinical precision.
I'm quiet and thoughtful tonight yet again. David Pilgrim's photo-essay on racial objects has left me thinking--for a very long time. Go read it when you're ready to spend some time thoughtfully.