I’m so excited to be involved in a community-based art project right now! This semester, I’m in a class with two other graduate students from my cohort, Meghan and Gabby. In the class, we’re all working in separate teaching groups, along with undergrad students, to design and teach a public art unit to a sculpture class at Clarke Central High School. Since this class is mixed undergrad/grad, the graduate students were asked to complete an additional project as graduate level work in addition to our work with the high school students. The three of us met early on in the semester and were a bit at a loss for project ideas! We wanted to relate our work to the work the high school students would be doing with us, but we weren’t sure what direction to take. Our answer came to us in the form of a wonderful guest speaker. We were able to join the high schoolers as they listened to a talk from Mrs. Hattie Thomas Whitehead, an activist and former resident of the neighborhood of Linnentown which was destroyed by the city of Athens and UGA in the 1960s. She shared her story of the terrorism she, her family, and her neighbors endured as they were systematically and cruelly removed from their homes, which had been labeled as “slums,” so the university could build “modern” dorms. Through her leadership, organizing, and activism with the Linnentown Justice and Memory Committee, a resolution was passed on February 16, 2021. This is the first ever official act of reparations passed in Georgia. There’s more information on their website, Redress for Linnentown.
Hattie Thomas Whitehead
We were deeply moved by the story, and were excited to see the resolution includes a piece of public memorial art. However, we were shocked and angered to hear Mrs. Whitehead tell us that UGA has refused to come to the table for discussion at any step in the process. She shared that the city is even planning to install the memorial work on city land, because they worry that the university would tie up the installation in red tape for years if the city moved to install on the university’s property. Meghan, Gabby, and I agreed: we’re in a unique position as graduate students. We’re inside the university already, and we have access to the student body that the Linnentown residents and descendants do not. This is where our privilege becomes a tool. We decided to create a quilt in memory of Linnentown, and invite residents and descendants to attend quilting sessions, where stories can be shared and community can come together. We’ll be working as facilitator-artists, supplying materials, quilting for those who would like to entrust their stories with us, and assembling the quilt as a whole. We’ll also be bringing in the fourth member of our cohort, Jake, to help us design and print collectable memory cards including information about Linnentown, the resolution adopted by the city, and the refusal of UGA to participate in redress and reparations. The cards will be trade-able and collectable; when the whole set is together, a larger image will appear! Once the quilt is complete, we plan to bring it to the dorms that now stand where Linnentown was and hand out the cards to the UGA community, in addition to displaying the quilt in various locations on campus.
A Linnentown House
Our hope is that our work will provide a way for the Linnentown community to bring their stories and experiences to the student community of UGA. We hope the student community will be moved and angered as we were, and call for the administration of the university to reach out to the Linnentown residents and begin the discussion. I’m truly excited to work to bring these two communities in touch and I hope that as artists and educators, we’re able to help the Linnentown residents share their story with the students of UGA.