All images by LaShawnda Jones except where noted.
This year’s Juneteenth print series features monuments in Montgomery, Alabama and Chicago, Illinois.
For Freedom Day 2023 I wanted to feature the ancestors we have lost to the violence and hatred baked into the American way of life as well as visionaries intent on carving a way through the oppression for themselves and future generations across the American landscape.
Bryan Stevenson‘s Legacy Museum: From Slavery to Mass Incarceration and National Monument of the Peace and Justice were top of mind and spirit this year. As was Chicago’s settler founder and Bronzeville.
We live in a time, culture and society that actively hates reality. The truth of the country’s beginning, its history, and present state is being erased, banned, rewritten and ignored. For this reason, I wanted to focus on words – names, cities, declarations. I wanted to share what’s already been said, what’s already known and seen and acknowledged. This year’s Juneteenth Series is about honoring and remembering not only our collective past but also our shared present.
Follow the links for more information on the people and places featured in the series.
Jars of Earth I features monument tablets and a wall inscription at The Legacy Museum: From Slavery to Mass Incarceration in Montgomery, Alabama. It is available as an 11×14 low-texture giclée print mounted (or not) on single-weight white foam and as a 5×7 silk print.
Jars of Earth II features monument tablets and a wall inscription at The Legacy Museum: From Slavery to Mass Incarceration in Montgomery, Alabama. It is available as an 11×14 low-texture giclée print mounted (or not) on single-weight black foam and as a 5×7 silk print.
We Will Remember features monument tablets and a wall inscription at The National Memorial for Peace & Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. This image is available as an 11×14 low texture giclée print mounted (or not) on single-weight white foam and as a 5×7 silk print.
They Are All Honored Here features monument tablets and a wall inscription at The National Memorial for Peace & Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. It is available as an 11×14 low texture giclée print mounted (or not) on single-weight white foam and as a 5×7 silk print.
Johnson Publishing Company (JPC) Anchors Chicago Skyline (2015) displays the home of the cultural iconic magazines Ebony and JET magazines nearly straddling the meeting point of Bronzeville and Magnificent Mile on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. It is available as a silk print in 5×7 and 10×20. Please allow 2-3 weeks for printing and shipping.
Du Sable on Potawatomi Land is a composite image of a bust of Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue overlooking a mural by Andrea Carlson on the Chicago River Walk stating “Bodéwadmikik ėthë yéyék” meaning “You are on Potawatomi Land.” Du Sable on Potawatomi Land is available as an 11×14 low texture giclée print mounted (or not) on single-weight black foam and as a 5×7 silk print.
Prior Year Series
My 2022 Juneteenth series featured composite images representing money, power and the slave trade. The images used for the composites were taken between 2009 and 2020 in Dallas, Milwaukee, New York, Tucson, and Washington DC. A NASA satellite image of the world at night is incorporated in The Crossing.
Black Women Stand Alone is a composite of a lone Black Woman sitting in front of the White House as a police officer approaches her. Barricades with signs reading *Do Not Enter* are barring her entry to the primary symbol of power in the United States of America. It is available as a 5×7 silk print and 11×14 giclée print.
Land of Cotton depicts Lady Liberty walking across a cotton-filled New York Harbor toward mainland USA. It is available as a 5×7 silk and 11×14 giclée print.
The Crossing: Blood in the Water represents a mother & daughter holding hands across the Atlantic and generations. There’s blood enveloping a ship-like structure behind them that stretches from the African continent to the USA. It is available as a 5×7 silk and 11×14 giclée print.
