BOSTON (WHDH) - Local artists have begun projecting images of local figures who promote diversity and inclusion onto the base of the former Christopher Columbus statue in Boston’s North End.
The artists involved said they hope the project will help start a different conversation.
“So I’ve been thinking about what is going to replace these monuments so what I want to do is think about is underrepresented people,” artist Cedric “Vise1″ Douglas said.
On Thursday night, artists projected images of local leaders like Sonia Chang-Diaz, the first Latina elected to the Massachusetts state Senate and Frieda Garcia, a community activist known for her decades of work in the South End and Roxbury.
They said they want to redefine what monuments can be.
A monument doesn’t have to only be of someone from the 1800s,” Douglas said. “It can be an everyday person from the community.”
By projecting images of people who are still alive, artists say they hope to change how communities engage with monuments.
“You put a monument in bronze and only tourists see it and the people that live in the community have no interaction with these monuments,” he said. “They just sit there.”
The artists criticizing monuments of confederate soldiers and figures like Christopher Columbus.
“What are we kinda glorifying you know? Like, let’s glorify people who are doing amazing things that have uplifted the community,” Douglas said.
He said eventually, he would like the public to participate in a vote to decide who should be featured next.
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