A collaboration of artists and writers commemorates a powerful symbol for social justice and freedom on Chicago’s South Side

 

The Wall of Respect, a work of public art created in 1967 at the corner of Forty-third Street and Langley Avenue on Chicago’s South Side, depicted Black leaders in music, literature, politics, and sports. The Wall sparked a nationwide mural movement, provided a platform for community engagement, and was a foundational work of the Black Arts Movement. There is no longer any physical indication of its existence, but it still needs to be remembered. Fleeting Monuments for the Wall of Respect argues against making a monument of it, or of other historically significant events, in the formal language of grandness and permanence. Instead, Romi Crawford proposes the concept of “fleeting monuments,” asking a range of artists and writers to realize antiheroic, nonstatic, and impermanent strategies for commemoration. The result is a collection of “fleeting monuments” of poetry, photography, essays, artworks, and performance that invites readers to enact the history of the Wall of Respect on their own terms. Through the intimate and portable format of a book, Fleeting Monuments for the Wall of Respect recognizes and pays tribute to the Wall while proposing new strategies for commemoration and public memory that inspire us today as we endeavor to preserve the recent murals, installations, and other forms of public art created to support racial justice. 

Contributors: Miguel Aguilar, Abdul Alkalimat and the Amus Mor Project, Wisdom Baty, Lauren Berlant, Mark Blanchard, Bethany Collins, Darryl Cowherd, D. Denenge Duyst-Akpem, Julio Finn, Maria Gaspar, Theaster Gates, Wills Glasspiegel, Stefano Harney and Fred Moten, Stephanie Koch, Kelly Lloyd, Damon Locks, Haki Madhubuti, Faheem Majeed, Nicole Mitchell Gantt, Naeem Mohaiemen, K. Kofi Moyo, Robert E. Paige, Kamau Patton, Jefferson Pinder, Cauleen Smith, Rohan Ayinde, solYchaski, Norman Teague, Jan Tichy, Visiting Val Gray Ward, Mechtild Widrich, and Bernard Williams. 

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Fleeting Monuments and the Wall of Respect

Fleeting Monuments

I. Legacy Works

Romi Crawford

Abdul Alkalimat and the Amus Mor Project

Darryl Cowherd

K. Kofi Moyo

Haki Madhubuti

Robert E. Paige

Visiting Val Gray Ward

II. Gift Works

Miguel Aguilar

Bethany Collins

Julio Finn

Maria Gaspar

Wills Glasspiegel

Naeem Mohaiemen

Kamau Patton

Rohan Ayinde Smith

III. Reflective Works

D. Denenge Duyst-Akpem

Stephanie Koch

Stefano Harney and Fred Moten

Nicole Mitchell Gantt

Cauleen Smith

solYchaski

Norman Teague

Bernard Williams

IV. Do-for-Self Works

Wisdom Baty

Kelly Lloyd

Damon Locks

Mechtild Widrich

Jefferson Pinder

V. Remnant Works

Faheem Majeed

Jan Tichy

Mark Blanchard

Theaster Gates

Lauren Berlant and Romi Crawford

Contributors

Romi Crawford is professor in the Visual and Critical Studies and Liberal Arts departments at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is coeditor of The Wall of Respect: Public Art and Black Liberation in 1960s Chicago.