Woke and Cancel Culture Hit Chicago-- Part 5: About the Columbus Statues

 Black artist Hank Willis Thomas offered a giant Afro pick that tapered to a black power fist at the end of its handle.  Titles "All Power To All People," the 800 pound aluminum-and-steel sculpture was provocatively placed near a bronze statue of Frank Rizzo, a former Philadelphia mayor and police commissioner who for many Philadelphians was a symbol of police brutality directed at Blacks and other people of color.

The discussion over history and monuments has continued into 2021, as San Francisco recently scrapped 44 school names.

The issue came to a head last July, when activists forcibly attempted to remove the prominent statue of Columbus in Grant Park, leading to violent clashes between police and protesters.  Nearly a week later, Mayor Lightfoot took down Columbus statues in Grant Park and Little Italy.  She later had a lesser-known Columbus statue in a South Chicago neighborhood removed.

Columbus has been condemned by activists around the country who point to the Italian explorer's treatment of Indians after he landed in the Americas in 1492.

Many Italians prize the statues of the explorer as an expression of their mainstream American identity.

--Cooter

Bohemian National Cemetery-- Part 11: The Pilgrim Statue

The statue depicting an older woman shrouded in long robes, was designed by Czech-born sculptor Albin Polasek.  It is one of his two works displayed at the Bohemian cemetery --the other, Mother, is located just outside the crematorium.

Polasek moved from New York to Chicago in 1916, to become the head of the department of modeling and sculpture at the Chicago Art Institute.  The life-size sculpture was commissioned as a memorial to Frantiska Stejskal, the mother of the Stejskal-Buchel families, and shows a woman walking toward the family's mausoleum.

Other examples of his work in the Chicago-area include  the 7-foot-tall The Sower at the Chicago Botanic Garden (sporting a face mask these days but otherwise in the buff) and Spirit of Music in Grant Park.  These statues have not yet been taken down by certain people.

Chicago's Bohemian National Cemetery-- Part 3: The Cubs Treestone Marker

 One couple have shown their own design to show their never-ending support for the Cubs in a style  found throughout the cemetery's grounds.  The tree-stump gravestone, or treestone, is made from limestone, which is easy to carve and can feature a variety of symbols.

In this example, which is the first one installed at the cemetery in  more than 70 years, there are branches from two trees barely touching, forming the shape of a heart.  According to its sculptor, Walter S. Arnold, this treestone features a transistor radio -- which is tuned to WGN AM 720 -- because the husband, who was blind, loved to listen to the play-by-play while attending Cubs games.

There's a crack through the name of his wife, who survives him, symbolizing her broken heart.  At the bottom are symbols of then things they enjoyed together.