By Renée Ater
Dread Scott is the recipient of the 2021 Public Art Dialogue Award for achievement in the field of public art. To mark the occasion, in February 2021 PAD member and scholar Renée Ater conducted a broad-ranging interview with the artist about enslavement, resistance, and freedom. Topics covered included: Scott’s projects Slave Rebellion Reenactment (2019), Unchained at Järnvågsplatsen (2019), and Dread Scott: Decision (2013); the creation of living monuments; gender and revolutionary violence; Toni Morrison’s Beloved; plantation tourism; and the ghosts of America’s past. An excerpt of this interview appears below. The full interview will run in the Fall 2021 issue of Public Art Dialogue.