Crispus in July: Requiem for a Revolutionary aka Monument to the American Lacuna aka A Series of Interventions and Meditations in Public Space to Contemplate Freedom Trails and Trials and Politicized Deaths of Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and Very Expressly, Those of the United States of America

Commissioned by Revolutionary Spaces (formerly Bostonian Society) in collaboration with Now + There

Old State House, Boston, MA 

(Unrealized/on hold)

Crispus in July: Requiem for a Revolutionary aka Monument to the American Lacuna aka A Series of Interventions and Meditations in Public Space to Contemplate Freedom Trails and Trials and Politicized Deaths of Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and Very Expressly, Those of the United States of America (shortened to “Crispus is July”) is a series of public interventions, in five movements over a period of months, with a preamble and an epilogue, that engage the mythology of Crispus Attucks and the Boston Massacre in relationship to historical black freedom struggle and contemporary cases of police brutality. Located at the Old State House Monument and the site of the Boston Massacre marker, in Boston, MA, the project draws on historical records and cultural ephemera to trace mechanisms by which the white imaginary produces the phenomenon called the "black body" and the material violence against actual black people that results.  It was originally commissioned by Revolutionary Spaces to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Boston Massacre.  Revolutionary Spaces is a new Boston-based organization founded when the Bostonian Society (steward of the Old State House) and the Old South Association (steward of the Old South Meeting House) merged in 2020.  From their mission statement:

Revolutionary Spaces brings people together to explore the American struggle to create and sustain a free society, singularly evoked by Boston’s Old South Meeting House and Old State House. We steward these buildings as gathering spaces for the open exchange of ideas and the continuing practice of democracy, inspiring all who believe in the power of people to govern themselves.

The project had just been approved in January 2020 during the first board meeting after the reorganization and was to be produced by Now+There, a Boston-based public art organization.  Production was halted in March 2020, to be pushed to a date TBD.

Visit the following link to hear a talk on the design of this unrealized monument:

The Rose Art Museum: Yesterday's Tomorrow: Activating History Today

https://youtu.be/-UCrQfhUC-E?si=-YUjsyXlBmdLix77&t=1968