NARRATIVES
Before exploring The Bronzed Project’s core narrative essays, make sure you read author Mary Collins’ mission statement for the project on our HOME PAGE. Additionally, it’s helpful to familiarize yourself with ways the project and its resources can be used via the HOW TO USE THIS RESOURCE tab!
RACE
How do I weigh that my ancestor, American Revolution naval hero John Barry, also owned slaves? This conundrum pounds my spirit as I speak with Irish Americans charged with caretaking the Barry statue behind Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, and Black people who rejoiced at finally getting the first statue to a Black man, 19th Century educator and voting rights leader Octavius Catto, on city streets in 2017.
★ Access the “Tuning Into Race” chapter here ★
CLASS
An American without a college degree stands to earn 77 percent less than an American with a college degree, a trend that underscores the devastating—and growing—economic divide in the U.S. As I make my way to Bangor to see a famous statue to the rivermen of Maine, modeled on my great-great grandfather Larry Connors, I stop at the family paper business in Massachusetts and discuss the decline in manufacturing, the challenges laborers of all races and ethnic groups face, and the overall decline in fulfilling work, wages, and job stability for all but the top 5 percent of American workers.
★ Access the “Tuning Into Class” chapter here ★
POLITICS
My own family reflects the growing political divide within white America between the Republicans and Democrats, the MAGA hat wearers and the Bernie supporters. In this essay, I head to the Midwest to meet a Republican who is a direct descendent of Irish Americans who followed my relative, the Irish rebel leader John O’Neill, to Nebraska, where he founded a town in his name. Can our shared family histories help us find any common ground despite our political differences? We discover the power of listening to each other.
★ Access the “Tuning Into Politics” chapter here ★
VISITING THE NATIONAL MALL IN WASHINGTON, DC
Should any individual be eulogized in bronzed in any public square or should we stick to representational memorials? A National Park Service guide walks me through three decades of how Americans have handled public monuments on the National Mall in Washington DC. I discover the “Bench by the Side of the Road” program started by Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Toni Morrison and connect with a university professor who still has faith in the role that historical sites, societies and museums can play in offering trusted spaces for better civic discourse.
★ Access the “How to Hold a National Conversation” chapter here ★
Who would I bronze in my own personal “town square”? Well, some of my female ancestors could certainly receive more due.