According to Time, there have been 563 anti-critical race theory measures. Time also reported that 241 were “enacted or adopted.”
The Lilly Library exhibit, “Global Slaveries, Fugitivity, and the Afterlives of Unfreedom” aims to change how we view slavery.
One of the main goals of the exhibit is “to broaden and deepen our understanding of how histories of slavery and unfreedom continue to shape today’s inequities.”
The curators of this are Olimpia Rosenthal and Pedro Machado. The Outreach Librarian, Ursula Romero also helped, acting as a liaison between the curators and the library.
“I think it’s a really important history and I think that the way that they address the histories of slavery from a more global perspective is just something that a lot of people, I don’t think really are familiar with,” said Romero.
The exhibit is part of the Sawyer Seminar, the seminar aims to combine “scholars, literary authors, visual artists, and museum and library practitioners to reflect on histories of slaveries and their afterlives,” according to the Global Slaveries.
Rosenthal discusses some of the history of global slavery.
Rosenthal shared that it is important that students and the community learn about the impacts of slavery. She also shared her opinions on people denying slavery.
“There has been a lot of contestation to that, I’m just saying it is a fundamentally important part of our history, it’s a difficult one to discuss, but ignoring or pretending that it didn’t happen, like there was a lot of good things that came out of it is extremely problematic,” said Rosenthal.
The seminar also features a group of collaborators, presenters, moderators and discussants. It also has a postdoctoral and dissertation fellow.
The exhibit also has“materials include items from different geographies, including textual passages in various languages and visual materials from a range of places and time.”
One piece that is in this exhibit is the Boxer Codex, which dates back to the 1500s.
Machado talks about what he learned the exhibit and what he hopes the public takes away from the exhibit.
Machado said that one of the reasons that this exhibit is important is because it looks at different parts of the world that slavery impacted instead of learning about slavery in the United States.
“They have little understanding or appreciation of these histories in other parts of the world,” and
“To write the histories of slavery, unfreedom around the world, you need more than just Spanish, Portuguese, or English, you need to go beyond European languages,” said Machado.
Machado also talked about what he hopes visitors understand and take away from the project.
“I’m hoping it underscores for visitors to the exhibition, not only these deep histories and wide geographies, but also that the legacy of these past are alive with us. Histories that are dead, the past is always with us oftentimes in how we memorialize that past and think about that past,” said Machado
The project hosted two dialogues and will host a performance, workshop, reading group and lectures.
The exhibit is open until December 15th.
