The Forum with Kim Shuck: When Art is Racist
May 13, 2018
9:30 am
Should public art be removed because of racist imagery? Sculptures like the “Early Days” portion of the Pioneer monument in Civic Center, which depicts a seated man in anachronistic plains tribe attire, looking up at a missionary reaching to him while pointing to heaven, or the many monuments to Confederate figures—should they be removed or destroyed? Or are they part of our history which should be remembered? These questions hit home as Grace Cathedral considers the imagery of Native Americans in its murals in a conversation with San Francisco Poet Laureate Kim Shuck.
About the guest
Kim Shuck is San Francisco’s Poet Laureate, appointed in 2017. Shuck’s poetry, which includes full-length collections “Rabbit Stories” and “Smuggling Cherokee,” draws upon her Cherokee and Polish heritage and her life as a fifth-generation resident of San Francisco. Her latest works — a full-length collection titled “Clouds Running In” and a chapbook titled “Sidwalk Ndn” — were published in 2014. A former American Indian Studies instructor and alumnus at San Francisco State University, Shuck is also an artist who works primarily with textiles, baskets and beads. She held a residency at the DeYoung Museum in 2010. Her works have been displayed across the United States and in Taiwan. Shuck currently works for the California College of the Arts’ Diversity department, and volunteers for the San Francisco Unified School District. She was a recipient of KQED’s Local Hero Award.
Poet Laureate of San Francisco Inaugural Address
About the host
The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm Clemens Young is the dean of Grace Cathedral. He is the author of The Spiritual Journal of Henry David Thoreau and The Invisible Hand in Wilderness: Economics, Ecology, and God, and is a regular contributor on religion to the Huffington Post and San Francisco Examiner.
About The Forum
The Forum is a series of stimulating conversations about faith and ethics in relation to the important issues of our day. We invite inspiring and illustrious people to sit down for a real conversation with the Forum’s host, Malcolm Clemens Young, the dean of Grace Cathedral, and with you. Our guests range from artists, inventors and philosophers to pop culturists and elected officials, but the point of The Forum is singular: civil, sophisticated discourse that engages minds and hearts to think in new ways about the world.