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AAHGS Nashville: "Chipping Away" Film Uncovers Nashville roots of US sculptor William Edmondson
About this event
AAHGS Nashville will partner with filmmaker Mark Schlicher to offer the public a glimpse at his forthcoming documentary entitled “Chipping Away: The Life and Legacy of Sculptor William Edmondson."
This is a hybrid event. To attend online, click here.
Born in Nashville in 1874, Edmondson became the first African American artist to be given a solo exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1937.
Descendants of Edmondson's family and others who knew and talked with the self-taught sculptor, as he worked in the backyard of his home, are featured in the film. Edmondson lived in the South Nashville neighborhood known as Edgehill during the early, twentieth century.
Our screening of the 14-minute film excerpt will be followed by a discussion with filmmaker Schlicher and Edmondson descendant Tanya Gray, a great-grand niece who was raised in Edgehill and fondly remembers the neighborhood.
Census and military records tie the storied sculptor to a formerly enslaved man named Orange Edmondson who was one of the thousands of Black laborers who built Fort Negley and other Civil War fortifications in Nashville. Built for Union troops, the forts served as a federal occupation of Confederate Tennessee. Most of the laborers were escaped slaves who drew to Union lines. They were hired to chisel, carve and then dry-stack large blocks of limestone into walls that stood several feet high. The limestone, native to Tennessee, is the same stone Edmondson used to shape his many divinely inspired sculptures.
This meeting is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
To attend in person: meet at Fort Negley Visitors Center, 1100 Fort Negley Blvd, Nashville, 37203 (Please save parking spots closest to the building for persons who may need them most.)
To attend online: register for Zoom (link here).
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