Paper Monuments' Story Boards
Paper Monuments' Story Boards
What's a person, place, movement or event you think New Orleans should remember? For our first event in the Story Boards series, visual artists Langston Allston and Henry Lipkis got the chance to answer this question over two hours at the Ace Hotel New Orleans. The crowd came to watch, to enjoy the music, and (of course) to fill out their own Public Proposals.
We collected over 30 proposals for monuments to a wide variety of people, places, movements, events and ideas, including "The Voice of the People", the New Orleans Vietnamese community, and unity between the East and West Banks.
Langston and Henry chose to represent the stories of the 1970 Battle of Desire, in which New Orleans police infiltrated and arrested a community center run by the Black Panthers in the Desire housing projects (below left) and of Bras-Coupe, an early 19th-century Black freedom fighter who led a maroon community in the swamps outside New Orleans (below right).
We have many, many thanks for all those whose efforts helped bring Story Boards #1 into the world. Our immense gratitude goes out to all those who came out, submitted Public Proposals, and spent the evening with us; to Langston and Henry for their artistic contributions; to our wonderful partners in videography Luisa, Boedi and Lindsay; and to the Surdna Foundation for their support.
A big shout-out goes to Gia Hamilton, Jocelyne Ninneman and Sonali Ferdinand, whose efforts on our behalf truly made this night possible. We're grateful to the entire team at the Ace Hotel for their hard work as well.
