Alabama's powerful memorial to the lingering horror of lynching

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Holland Cotter

Enslaved African men and women in a sculpture by the Ghanaian artist Kwame Akoto-Bamfo at the new National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Ala. The work is dedicated to the memory of the victims of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Credit Johnathon Kelso for The New York Times

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Arthur St. Clair, a minister, was lynched in Hernando County, Florida, in 1877 for performing the wedding of a black man and white woman. These appalling death notices — there are 90 in all, based on archival accounts dating from between 1877 and 1950 — fall like blows as you read them, one after another, lined up like epitaphs on a long wall at the new National Memorial for Peace and Justice in this city. Historically, accounts of the lynching of African-Americans appeared in regional newspapers but seldom made their way into the North-based mainstream press. That silence has been decisively broken with the opening of the memorial and the museum. Both were created by the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit legal advocacy group directed by Bryan Stevenson and based in Montgomery. [More]

A lynching memorial for America opens in Alabama

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Campbell Robertson

A 2017 sculpture by Titus Kaphar, “Doubt,” sat amid accounts of slaves and former slaves at the museum. Credit Audra Melton for The New York Times

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — In a plain brown building sits an office run by the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, a place for people who have been held accountable for their crimes and duly expressed remorse. Just a few yards up the street lies a different kind of rehabilitation center, for a country that has not been held to nearly the same standard. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which Thursday on a six-acre site overlooking the Alabama State Capitol, is dedicated to the victims of American white supremacy. And it demands a reckoning with one of the nation’s least recognized atrocities: the lynching of thousands of black people in a decades-long campaign of racist terror. [More]

Artists amplify the story of American slave labor in new museum

ARTNET NEWS
By Brian Boucher

Elizabeth Catlett, Virginia (1984). Courtesy From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration.

Countries from Germany to Rwanda have erected so-called “museums of conscience” devoted to reckoning with the darkest episodes in their history. At a moment of heightened struggles over the symbols of racism across the United States, the Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) is looking to add to that catalogue with a new institution whose name says it all: The From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration Museum. Scheduled to open next year in Montgomery, Alabama, the new museum will focus on telling a story that connects the dots from slavery through segregation to the well-documented and dramatic disparities within the criminal justice system today. [More]

President, Barack Obama designates Baptist church as a national monument

HYPERALLERGIC
By Allison Meier

Stained glass window "Alabama Window" by artist John Petts in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, funded by the people of Wales as an in memoriam after the 1963 bombing (Spring 1963)

As he approached his last week as the US President, Barack Obama designated three national monuments that represent post-Civil War Reconstruction and Civil Rights heritage. Announced [last Friday], just ahead of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the new monuments include 19th-century architecture in Beaufort County, South Carolina; pivotal Civil Rights movement locales in Birmingham, Alabama; and places associated with the 1961 attack on the Freedom Riders in Anniston, Alabama. National monuments can be designated by the president through the Antiquities Act of 1906. [link]

How Mother Angelica Revved Up Alabama's Tourism Industry

ALABAMA.COM
By Greg Garrison

In this 1999 photo, Mother Angelica stands in the piazza at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, a pilgrimage center at Our Lady of the Angels Monastery Farm in Hanceville, Ala. She died at the monastery on Easter Sunday, March 27, 2016. (Hal Yeager/AL.com File)

ALABAMA---When Mother Angelica built EWTN in Alabama in 1981 and began hosting a live TV talk show that aired nationwide, she welcomed viewers to come and sit in the studio audience on Tuesday nights. She built it, and they came. Mother Angelica, who died on Easter Sunday at 92, created a cottage industry for tourism in Alabama. Her studio in Irondale became a popular destination for Catholics from all over the country and around the world. [link]

Thornton Dial, Pioneering Outsider Artist, Dies at 87

ARTNET | NEWS
By Andrew Russeth

Thornton Dial, Out of the Darkness, the Lord Gave Us Light, 2003, collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. STEPHEN PITKIN, PITKIN STUDIO/©THORNTON DIAL

Artist Thornton Dial, who used found objects, fabric, and paint to make astounding, intricate wall reliefs and sculptures that harbor nuanced narratives at once grand and intimate, died yesterday, Monday, January 25, at his home in Emelle, Alabama. The cause of death was not released. In recent years he had been ill and had strokes. He was 87. The dense surfaces of Dial’s art, loaded with everything from slices of metal to doll parts to carpeting and bedecked with intriguing combinations of color, radiate carefully controlled energies. The undulating compositions can bring to mind titans like Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock. [link]

Ex-Monk Turned Bestselling Author Advocates "Creating a Personal Spirituality"

ALABAMA MEDIA GROUP
By Greg Garrison

PUBLISHING---Thomas Moore, one of America's bestselling spiritual authors, has his finger on the nation's religious pulse. "What I see happening is that a lot of people are angry at the religion they grew up with," Moore said in a telephone inteview with AL.com. "Yet among the people who are angry, there's a lot of seeking going on. They don't feel they're at home. They envy the people who have a church to go to and feel good about it." Moore, in his most recent book, “A Religion of One’s Own: A Guide to Creating a Personal Spirituality in a Secular World," discusses the contemplative lifestyle he lived as a monk for 12 years, but embraces a broader spiritual search using art and music. [link]

An Alabama Synagogue, Once Struggling for Congregants, Stretches Out Its Hand

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

Rabbi Lynne Goldsmith, whose congregation in Dothan, Ala.,
has doubled since her synagogue started a $1 million program.

ALABAMA---Jews are moving to a small-town in Alabama in unprecedented numbers after a Jewish businessman funded a $1 million recruitment campaign, according to The New York Times. Jewish families apply for relocation, and the approved families have moved to Dothan, AL from Georgia, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Where once, 15 people came to Saturday worship services, the numbers are now up to 30, a 100% increase and growing.

$300,000 Gift to Fund Forum for Worship and the Arts in Alabama

THE SAMFORD CRIMSON
By Zach Brown

ALABAMA---At an Oct. 8 luncheon, Samford will unveil the first stages of anima, the Forum for Worship and the Arts. The forum’s website, animatheforum.com, will launch in mid-October. anima resulted from a $300,000 grant from the Christ Is Our Salvation Foundation in Waco, Texas. Eric Mathis, anima director and assistant professor of music and worship, said that the grant had two conditions: establishing a center for worship and the arts and creating programs for teenagers. [link]

Edward Noriega, Disturbing the Comfortably Religious in Alabama

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest Disney-Britton

"Working Feet" (2012)

On his website, politicalabamadesign.com, artist Edward Noriega includes the quote, “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable,” attributing it either Banksy or Cesar A. Cruz. It is fitting no matter the source. When an art exhibition of faculty works was shutdown by irritated board members, it was the work of Edward Noriega which received the blame. A museum spokesperson cited his use of swastika's in the show as a justification for the censorship. Noriega responded to me saying, "The work was created to reflect my personal opinion about the HB56 Law. In my opinion this law is a modern form of ethnic cleansing. It uses verbiage like "show me your papers" and "Foreigners Out". These are the very same words and tactics used by the Nazi Party. So in my estimation, I think the usage of such iconography is legitimate." Was it truly sensitivity to Jews and not the immigrant politics of Alabama which caused the censorship? What do you think?

Alabama Art Show Canceled Because of Ed Noriega's Offensive Images

DAILY HOME
By Chris Norwood

ALABAMA---A Troy University faculty art show at Heritage Hall Museum was canceled when board members deemed some of the images submitted by one of the artists to be offensive. According to Heritage Hall office administrator Kelly Williams, “There were nine artists that contributed, and the theme was ‘A Sense of Place.’ There was a piece by Ed Noriega that showed cans of Ajax, I guess, that had been relabeled, and had swastikas on the top. There were also some digitally altered images of the Virgin Mary holding a dead chicken in one hand and a broom and dust pan in the other. But the biggest problem was with the swastikas.” The pieces Noriega submitted were all meant to comment on HB 56, the controversial state immigration law. [link]

Birmingham Museum of Art staffers Learn Basics of Islam During Ramadan

THE BIRMINGHAM NEWS
By Greg Garrison

ALABAMA - On Monday night [a week ago] at the Hoover Crescent Islamic Center, a group of staff members from the Birmingham Museum of Art listened to a Muslim leader explain the basics of Islam. They watched and joined in as Muslims broke their daytime fasting for their holy month of Ramadan by eating dates, then they watched an evening prayer in the mosque after hearing a call to prayer -- chanted in Arabic -- played over the speaker system at the Islamic center. A community meal of Indian food was served afterward in a tent set up behind the mosque. "I was interested in the level of tolerance, the level of acceptance," said Gail Andrews, director of the Birmingham Museum of Art. "It was really inspiring." [link]

Birmingham Museum in US exhibiting Hindu Deities

THE DAILY HINDU

ALABAMA - The famous Birmingham Museum of Art (BMA) in the USA is presenting various Hindu deities in an exhibition 'Faces of India' through October 2. The exhibit reportedly includes 23 sculptures in bronze and stone from the second through 18th centuries, including a 16th century image of Shiva Nataraja, dancing Ganesha, Narasimha, etc. Related events include a yoga program, classical Indian music, lecture on sacred arts and spiritual rituals of India, classical Indian films, dance and music from India, etc. [link]

Alabama Abbey & Art Grotto Untouched by Tornado

THE TENNESSEAN
By Anna McFall

ALABAMA - In a north Alabama city forever changed by April's tornado outbreak, one historic spot went untouched by destruction. The Ave Maria Grotto, also known as "Jerusalem in Miniature," rests on a hillside at St. Bernard Abbey, Alabama's only Benedictine monastery. The artistic refuge is made up of over 125 miniature handmade replicas of historic religious buildings and shrines. Created during a lifetime of monastic dedication, the grotto mostly represents the artwork of Brother Joseph Zoetl, a monk who lived at the Abbey for nearly 70 years. Replicas of structures like St. Peter's Basilica, the Pantheon and the Alamo bring visitors from across the world to the four-acre park in Cullman. Although not all of the replicas have religious themes, many visitors see the park as a place of inspiration. [link]

King James Bible Turns 400 Years Old Today

THE BIRMINGHAM NEWS
By Greg Garrison

This is the flyleaf for the King James Bible, which was
first published 400 years ago, in May 2, 1611. (Contributed)

ALABAMA - It's now 400 years old, archaic, dated and some would argue not as accurate or easy to read as later translations. But there is something special about the King James Bible, which was first published in May 1611. "I love the King James Version; it's my favorite translation," said Beeson Divinity School Dean Timothy George. "I listen to the King James Version on my iPod. It just sounds like the Bible to me." The King James Bible has been surpassed now by the best-selling New International Version and the Bible market has been inundated with a wide variety of high-quality translations, George said. [link]

Artist Suzanne Damrich Paints Stations of the Cross in Memory of Parents

PRESS REGISTER
By Roy Hoffman

12 Stations of the Cross by Suzzane Damrich

ALABAMA - Suzzane Damrich is creating a series of panels depicting the Stations of the Cross, an homage to the final hours of Jesus commonly found either as painting or statues in Catholic churches, and some Protestant ones. Among the scenes are, “Jesus is Condemned to Death,” “Jesus Meets his Mother,” “Jesus is Nailed to the Cross,” and “Jesus Is Taken from the Cross and Laid in Mary’s Bosom.” Damrich’s Stations will become public at Dauphin Way United Methodist in Mobile on Sunday with a musical concert to commemorate the occasion. Damrich was surprised by their request for her to paint the Stations of the Cross. “It’s unusual that a Methodist church would choose these,” notes John Ricketts, director of music and worship and Dauphin Way. But his church, he says, has a commitment to further “the sacred arts.” And, he says, the Stations of the Cross is “not necessarily completely Catholic” either, with the Lutheran church and sometimes other denominations utilizing them. They have, he says, been part of “acts of reverence and devotion during Lent for many centuries in many denominations.” [link]

Mobile Museum of Art's Spiritual Paintings Embrace Many Religious Traditions

"Saint Theresa" by Unknown Mexican Artist (19th c)

ALABAMA - In the Mobile Museum of Art, in Langan Park, some works of art with religious sensibility are nestled among the museum’s vast collection of paintings and sculpture. From Christian to Buddhist, Jewish to Muslim, faith traditions manifest themselves in these pieces. There is a healthy sampling of this art "if you think of religion as world religions," says Paul Richelson, chief curator at the museum, "and are broad in your definition of what religion might be." While there are some works tied specifically to Christianity — a painting of St. Thomas Aquinas, for example, created about 1650 by an unknown Flemish or Spanish artist — others, like African masks, are rooted in what Richelson calls "organized ritual and spirituality." Museum director Tommy McPherson says that "sacredness" is sometimes in the eye of the beholder. [Source: Press Register]

Art inside Prison Helps on the Outside

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
March 7, 2011

MISSOURI--This week, "Art on the Inside," an exhibit from the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project (APAEP), is opening at Saint Louis University. The program provides quality educational opportunities in the arts and humanities to incarcerated persons in Alabama. The exhibit features the work of students from inside Alabama state prisons and includes work from 2004 to 2010. At face value, this exhibit may not appear to have any ties to religion. However, those within the prison system are often forgotten about, their humanity disregarded and degraded. As religious persons, we are called to respond to all with compassion and respect for their human dignity - including incarcerated persons. Indeed, as Christians we reminded in Matthew's gospel of the importance of this:

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me. Then the righteous will answer him and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you? And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.'  (Matt 25:35-40).

Programs like APAEP recognize the dignity of these individuals and lift them up. However, APAEP is not alone in this mission. Two programs through SLU also cherish these individuals' dignity and seek to provide them with the means to enhance their intellectual and personal growth. The Saint Louis University College-In-Prison Program offers college courses and associates degrees to incarcerated persons and staff at the Eastern Reception Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne, Terre, Mo. and the Inside Out Speaker Series brings speakers from SLU's campus to the Bonne Terre campus. [link]

The Messiah, and Other Religious Truths

AOA NEWSBy Ernest Britton

"The Dogwood Tree" by Thornton Dial

INDIANA - The most exciting exhibition in America today may well be Thornton Dial's (b. 1928) amazing retrospective, "Hard Truths" at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. It is a masterwork of repression, refuse and redemption, and the response on Twitter, Facebook and the news media has been equally enthusiastic. In his 2003 "The Dogwood Tree" (above), Dial places a piece of real dogwood beneath the central figure of the black Messiah. It's an easily identifiable image but still transformative especially for those who have heard that Christ's cross was constructed of dogwood (It wasn't but it's a beautiful tale). It is visual art storytelling of this type that gripes you throughout this huge exhibit that also includes imagery of the death of Princess Diana, American racism, fires in California and the tragedy of 9-11. I hope you won't miss it but I also apologize, because in last week's preview post I neglected to share the closing date for the show (as one reader e-mailed). The show, "Hard Truths" runs through September 18 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

There's "Hard Truth" in Indiana

THIS AFTERNOON, following worship services, the AOA team is headed to the Indianapolis Museum of Art to experience the opening weekend of a major retrospective on Alabama artist and spiritual master of found-objects, Thorton Dial (b. 1928). Dial is the spotlighted artist for this year's winter/spring exhibition and it's a show that everyone should see. He is a hero to AOA friend, and fellow found-object artist Tom, who described the exhibition, Hard Truths as "a once in a life-time opportunity to experience an artform as original to America as gospel music." Between us, we've only seen 2 or 3 of his works in the past, so this will be a real treat today.