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The Performance of Commemoration: Who Gets Remembered?

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statue made of bronze of a man wearing a cape and wide-brimmed hat, wielding a sword and standing in front of the Bunker Hill obelisk monument
Date and time
Thursday, October 8, 2026
In-person:

Who gets remembered, who gets left out, and who gets to decide?

ArtsEmerson continues its exploration of America 250 and the complicated legacies of revolution, resilience, and resistance, bringing together perspectives from cultural memory, public art, and civic and cultural leadership to examine how history takes shape in public life. From the stories we preserve and teach, to the art and monuments we encounter in shared spaces, to the civic rituals and institutions that shape a city’s identity, the choices we make about how we commemorate the past influence how history is understood and carried forward.

Emerson Professor Dr. Mneesha Gellman, artist Cedric Douglas, and Boston’s Chief of Arts and Culture Joseph Henry will consider how communities remember, revisit, and reimagine the stories that define them; and the roles that memory, art, and civic life play in shaping our understanding of the past and the future.

Moderated by Gina Marie Jamieson.

Joseph Zeal Henry
Joseph Zeal-Henry is a designer, curator and public servant currently serving as Chief of Arts and Culture at the City of Boston and is an assistant professor at Columbia GSAPP. He has written for Tank Magazine, Dezeen and Casabella. Joseph was selected as the 2024 Artlab/Loeb Fellow at Harvard University GSD.
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Dr. Mneesha Gellman is professor of political science in the Marlboro Institute for Liberal Arts at Emerson College. She is a scholar of democratization and violence, and the author of numerous books and articles on human rights, memory politics, and education politics. She serves as an expert witness on Mexico and El Salvador in immigration courts. Dr. Gellman is the founder and director of the Emerson Prison Initiative, which brings a BA pathway to people incarcerated in Massachusetts.
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Cedric "Vise1" Douglas is a local Street Artist who has created work in the community for more than 20 years. Douglas is also founder of The UP Truck, a mobile creative arts lab to inspire people to be and think creatively. His Street Art which he calls Socialrealism captures a world of creativity, wonder and thought portraiture often animals, humans, and children.
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