Episode 5: The Scene of the Crime

Searching for his origins, Glenn comes face to face with a haunting image of slavery in America: a tiny photograph of a cotton plantation takes him back to the invention of photography as a source for truth-telling today. The scene testifies to the long shadow of slavery and the slow, systematic stripping away of equities that have ruptured Black relationships to the land. Can that same photograph also collapse time and place and regenerate links between generations? This episode brings our season to a close, but new seeds have come of it. To sow them is to shape a new chapter in our story.

Guests

April Watson, senior curator of photography at the Nelson-Atkins, welcomes us into the museum’s storage vault to share a singular photograph and its significance to the American experience.

Ryan Tenney, artist-farmer, digs into the root causes behind dramatic changes in Black farming and his sense of responsibility to continue the story.

Host

Glenn A. North is an award-winning poet and community leader based in Kansas City, Missouri. He is currently the Director of Inclusive Learning & Creative Impact at The Museum of Kansas City. He has previously served at the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Center, American Jazz Museum, and The Black Archives of Mid-America. Having earned an M.F.A. in Poetry from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Glenn also conducts Ekphrastic poetry workshops and uses poetry to address issues of social justice, diversity, equity, inclusion, and self-empowerment.