27/08/2023
Interdisciplinary social practice artists Sean Fader and Maureen Towey have unveiled the design for 'Q***r American Memorials,' a nationwide project which aims to unearth erased q***r histories and reclaim q***r spaces lost to hate. Inspired by the Stumbling Stones in Germany and the Stonewall riots, it is an evolution of Fader’s 'Insufficient Memory'—an interactive Google Earth map which allows you to engage with a digital memorial to LGBTQ+ lives. In 2018, Fader began combing through historical archives to compile a database of every LGBTQ+ person who was murdered in a hate crime in the United States while the Hate Crimes Prevention Act was being debated from 1999 to 2000. The artists have spent the past year working in partnership with MASS Design Group’s the Public Memory and Memorials Lab to develop physical memorials to mark these locations. They now will be working with local communities and organizations to create a constellation of memorials in cities across the U.S..