Weekend Passport: Artistic and Musical Tributes to Juneteenth

An art piece featuring wax candles of well-known American monuments by Sandy Williams IV, whose work is included in the ‘Shut Up Stone Mountain’ exhibition.
An art piece featuring wax candles of well-known American monuments by Sandy Williams IV, whose work is included in the 'Shut Up Stone Mountain' exhibition. Courtesy of Sandy Williams
An art piece featuring wax candles of well-known American monuments by Sandy Williams IV, whose work is included in the ‘Shut Up Stone Mountain’ exhibition.
An art piece featuring wax candles of well-known American monuments by Sandy Williams IV, whose work is included in the 'Shut Up Stone Mountain' exhibition. Courtesy of Sandy Williams

Weekend Passport: Artistic and Musical Tributes to Juneteenth

WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter.

Every Friday, our cultural contributor and global citizen Nari Safavi joins us for “Weekend Passport,” a feature dedicated to showing you how you can travel the world without ever leaving Chicago. Today’s segment is closer to home than usual, as we learn about an exhibit and concert in honor of Juneteenth. The holiday, observed on June 19th, commemorates the date in 1865 when, two and a half years after the emancipation proclamation, Black slaves in Galveston, Texas finally heard the news that they were free. To commemorate, the Bridgeport cultural center Co-Prosperity Sphere is hosting an exhibit called Shut Up Stone Mountain, which attempts to use art to decenter idealized visions of America in favor of a recognition of the subjective experiences of people that have suffered oppression under the American state. We’ll also hear from a sound artist who is part of a group of Black musicians embarking on a journey from Galveston, Texas to Chicago, stopping at significant historical sites along the way to pay homage to Black history and memory.