Search results | Digital Grinnell

Title: "The Unfortunate Persons from St. Domingo" : Refugees from the Haitian Revolution and the Contradictions of Early American Politics
Description: This essay aims to show how the influx of refugees from the Haitian Revolution into the United States was a factor in changing US policies as they related to the practice of human bondage.
Date Created: 2014
PID: grinnell:31902

Title: A Mother of Color on Raising Children with Both Visible and Invisible Disabilities, Ask the Advocate, Episode 3, Mothers on the Frontline Podcast
Description: An advocate with MomBiz Boss and a mother of children who experience developmental and mental health challenges. She speaks about being a mother of color and the experiences of raising children with both visible and invisible disabilities.
Date Created: 2017
PID: grinnell:23737

Title: Altering Clay: Enhancing Daily Rituals
Description: An exploration of ceramics as a means of producing functional pieces that stand apart from ordinary, generic dinnerware sets.
Date Created: 2011
PID: grinnell:318

Title: Foundations
Description: When confronting the reality of plantation slavery in America, aspects of life which seemed normal in the early 1880’s are often difficult to conceptualize today. In this block, the artist calls attention to the tradition of child raising, in which slaves were given the task of nursing and raising their master’s progeny. It seems counter-intuitive that one could believe a slave so unworthy of human dignity, yet at the same time entrust them with the life of their child. In this block, a portrait of a slave with their master’s baby is framed by a pattern comprised of enlarged images of a human cell, encouraging a contemplation of the hypocrisies present in the theoretical foundations of slavery, including the supposed biological and intellectual inferiority of black people. Most often, slaves bore responsibilities foundational to the prosperity and functioning of their owners; they were worthy of motherhood but not the recognition of full humanity. By featuring a female-bodied slave in this block, the artist also pushes the viewer to contemplate the highly gendered nature of slave work and how it reveals inconsistencies in the theoretical foundations of racial superiority in America.
Date Created: 2017
PID: grinnell:25493

Title: Gospel Truth About the Negro Spiritual
Description: Negro spirituals are songs created by the Africans who were captured and brought to the United States to be sold into slavery. This Lecture-Recital was presented by Randye Jones, Soprano & Researcher; assisted by William Tinker, Piano, at Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa, Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Date Created: 2007
PID: grinnell:63

Title: Loving v. Virginia
Description: In 1967, the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously voted to dismantle all state laws prohibiting intermarriage, overriding legal restrictions based on race written in 1883. In this block, created by studio assistant Leina’ala Voss, the first page of the Loving v. Virginia court transcript serves as a partial background on which two rings and a set of keys have been arranged; these objects symbolize the bond of marriage and evoke the feeling of a shared home. To the left of the court transcript the artist has placed a net, surrounded by metal nails, buttons, and fragments of colored flowers. Beneath the netting the words “race mixing is communism” appear as a headline above an image of a white protester, his face concealed behind dark sunglasses. This image is juxtaposed against a photograph which shows laughing children and their parents, innocent and unbothered by the chaos which surrounds them. By placing symbolic objects representative of marriage and domesticity alongside a supreme court document and Loving v. Virginia protest imagery, this block depicts how love itself has become a highly politicized issue defenseless against the noxious gass of racism and hatred. This block also reminds the viewer that even today we must not take our rings and keys, and the people we love, for granted; for there once was a time when even the love we feel for our family was unlawful in the eyes of our constitution.
Date Created: 2017
PID: grinnell:25516

Title: Presidential Election Panel
Description: Poster advertising a panel discussion on the 2012 Presidential election held on October 8, 2012, with panelists Barb Trish, Kathie Obradovich, and David Shribman and sponsored by the Rosenfield Program.
Date Created: 2012
PID: grinnell:5241

Title: Presidential Inauguration, Campus Viewing of the Presidential Inauguration
Description: Poster advertising a campus viewing of the presidential inauguration of Barack Obama on January 21, 2013, sponsored by the Rosenfield Program.
Date Created: 2013
PID: grinnell:5206

Title: The Call of the Cross: Four College Sermons, The Call of the Cross: 4 College Sermons
Description: Four sermons by George Herron, with an introduction by President George Augustus Gates.
Date Created: 1892
PID: grinnell:1751

Title: The First Meeting
Description: This piece aims to juxtapose Iowa’s progressive aims with its oppressive past. The centerpiece of this block is a poster publicizing an anti-slavery meeting which took place in Iowa. While anti-slavery meetings such as this one were necessary in the push towards abolition, the artist urges Iowans to explore their state’s relationship to slavery on a deeper level. The artist has incorporated chain-like strands of metal to symbolize the bondage of enslaved peoples, and depictions of genetic material captures the implications of slavery for actual living organisms. While Grinnellians may sometimes put their town on a pedestal for its historic abolitionist position and refusal to join the Confederate Army, this block calls attention to the pain and suffering that still occurred in this state at the hands of racism and white supremacy.
Date Created: 2017
PID: grinnell:25483