On July 4, 2020 TWPEF implemented a guerilla-girl approach to public art at Linden Place and the Dewolf Tavern in Bristol, RI.
They projected images and graphics accompanied by live narration, to bring attention to the fact that Linden Place is not just a beautiful building in a charming town, but a symbol of wealth built upon human brutality.
Staging the event on July 4th was a way to challenge our assumptions about what freedom and liberty mean in a country that was mired in the slave trade for centuries. Public feedback to the event was strong and local organizations, including Linden Place.
TWPEF not only brought attention to the history of enslaved people at Linden Place Mansion, once home to the DeWolf family, the largest enslavers in the region, but changed the course of how the museum represents itself thereafter.
Prior to these projection, the museum, which also functions as a wedding venue, had not acknowledged or named the individuals forced through its doors. However, following the projection of this history onto the building by TWPEF, the museum underwent a reckoning and recommitted to telling a more inclusive and accurate story, incorporating the experiences of the enslaved people connected to the site.
- See the recording of the reading, Langston Hughes’ “Let America Be America Again,” read by Daria-Lyric Montaquila against Linden Place Mansion. July 4, 2020
- See the recording of the reading, Frederick Douglass’ “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro,” read by Tammy Brown against the backdrop of the DeWolf Tavern in Bristol, Rhode Island. July 4, 2020
- Artwork by Beth Braganca Bell
