8 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2023
THE RICE THRESHER
Rice’s newest statue founds a ‘Blank Slate’ for conversation
KELTON KECK / THRESHER The newest statue on campus is an interactive sculpture visiting Rice on its national tour. The exhibit was created to start conversations about how slavery is memorialized.
SHREYA CHALLA
THRESHER STAFF
There’s a new statue on campus, and it’s intentionally provocative. This is the first time that “A Blank Slate: Hope for a New America,” an interactive sculpture on a national tour, is being exhibited on a university campus. The monument, created by Ghanaian artist Kwame Akoto-Bamfo to disrupt Confederate and segregated spaces, was first unveiled in Ghana in 2019 and has since been exhibited in numerous
American cities, including Chicago, New York and Washington D.C. Rice University is its penultimate stop before Galveston, where it will be for Juneteenth. The monument was unveiled on March 4 and is currently located in front of the Provisional Campus Facilities tents on College Way. The exhibit has been sponsored by Rice’s Center for African and African American Studies, the School of Social Sciences, the School of Humanities and Hanszen College. Jeffrey Fleisher, professor and department chair of anthropology and interim director of
Morgan said that she has seen posts about the Center for African and African American Studies, worked to bring the monument the Slave Voyages website on the monument, to Rice and is part of projects that analyze recognizing names of people who have how slavery is globally interpreted and appeared in research about Texas ports that memorialized in different places. He said were part of the trafficking of enslaved people. that the statue travels to spaces where Some of this research is done at Rice. “I thought that was a really powerful use there have been debates about Confederate of the monument,” Morgan said. “I think that monuments to create conversation. “There’s a lot of discussion around the a lot of the events that are coming up might William Marsh Rice statue, and so I think provide more opportunity for engagement it’s a really timely and interesting moment and for learning through the sculpture.” Events supporting the Blank Slate for us to kind of think about our own histories of segregation, and the problems monument include a lunchtime picnic at the that surround monumentality,” Fleisher monument on March 22, a talk by historian Gerald Horne later that evening and a panel said. The monument includes a screen where discussion and departure party on March people can display a message. According to 30. Students have also created a StoryMap Fleisher, the monument didn’t have a screen tracing the tour of the statue through the U.S., originally. He said that the interactive researching racial justice movements and the feature of the monument taps into its free significance of the statue in these different speech aspect and how the public can use places. Fleisher said that he is excited for the the presence of the monument to create conversations. Fleisher often visits the events and for students to visit and engage monument and has talked to faculty and with the monument. “We have a lot staff about it. of public art on “I think they’re campus, but I think pleased that a lot of that art tends this is offering This is offering an be more abstract. I an opportunity opportunity to think about to think, for some of the to think about students, it’s harder difficult subjects,” difficult subjects. I don’t for them to connect Fleisher said. “I think we have a lot of to it. This is a very don’t think we public opportunities on visually arresting have a lot of public campus to do that ... and I event. It creates a opportunities on moment for students campus to do that think this allows us to have to really reflect on,” … and I think this those conversations. Fleisher said. “It’s allows us to have a short visit, but … those conversations Jeffrey Fleisher I’m hoping it has an in a different kind RICE ANTHROPOLOGY DEPARTMENT CHAIR effect.” of way.” Morgan said that Molly Morgan, lecturer in the anthropology department, she hopes that, as Rice is reflecting on its own said that she thinks the Blank Slate history and the remaking of public spaces, monument is a beautiful reflection of all members of the Rice community will be African American history at different points thoughtful and intentional about what kinds of symbols and spaces they want to create at in time. “Each one of the figures is so evocative of Rice. “I think that is what the Blank Slate emotion and of reflection, but then having the blank tablet at the top for people to monument is all about,” Morgan said. engage with is such a piece of hope, I think, “Getting us to think about not only our past that lends itself to be open to all kinds of and where we have been, but also what kind of future we want to create.” different futures,” Morgan said.
Five of Houston’s indie theatre productions to watch JAY COLLURA
THRESHER STAFF ‘The Best of Everything’ at Main Street Theater Located right next to Rice University is the Main Street Theater, a smaller, intimate venue that has been run out of Rice Village since 1981. Main Street Theater strives to enrich Houston’s art scene by introducing new plays to the region, which is exactly what they plan to do with their next MainStage production, “The Best of Everything.” Running from May 20 to June 18, the play is focused on three aspiring secretaries in New York trying to balance their dreams, careers and responsibilities. This production will be the regional premiere of Julie Kramer’s adaptation of the novel, and previews begin on May 14. ‘Cleansed’ at the Midtown Arts and Theater Center Just down Main Street from Rice is MATCH, a theater that highlights smaller art organizations. From March 31 to April 22, MATCH will host the Catastrophic Theater’s production of “Cleansed,” a story of a university operating to remove society of its “undesirables.” The play examines the brutality inflicted by societal
institutions through a more surrealistic lens. This specific production will be the regional premiere of Sarah Kane’s script and will be hosted on the Matchbox 3 stage at MATCH. ‘The Greatest Hits Album: Side A’ at the Music Box Theater Since 2011, the Music Box theater has been a venue focused on sketch comedy, cabaret, and popular music performances. Unlike the other shows mentioned, “The Greatest Hits Album” is a compilation by the performers at the Music Box showcasing various songs and sketches that the Music Box theater has been known for. The setlist features songs across all decades that have been rearranged by the performers. This show has been running since February 18 and will continue until April 8. This show will be the group’s final production in their space on Colquitt St. ‘Plaza Suite’ at Playhouse 1960 Further outside Houston’s downtown theater scene is Playhouse 1960, a volunteer-based community theater that has been run since 1973. The theater’s main stage production will be “Plaza Suite,” a Neil Simon-written comedy revolving around three different couples who occupy
GENESIS HAHN / THRESHER
a suite at a Plaza hotel. The production will run from March 31 to April 16 and is a great opportunity to see a production outside of the theater-district scene. ‘Clyde’s’ at The Ensemble Theatre The Ensemble Theatre is a smaller group in downtown Houston formed in 1976 with the intention to preserve African American
art, a goal that it maintains through its various productions. The theater’s next production will be the regional premiere of Lynn Nottage’s “Clyde’s,” a comedy about a truck stop and the formerly incarcerated employees that work there. The play follows these employees and the redemption they find by working together. The play will run from March 23 to April 16.