Nekisha Durrett A'98

Image
Photo of Nekisha Durrett

Nekisha Durrett A'98 was selected by Bryn Mawr College in May 2023 to create a monument addressing a legacy of exclusionary practices at the College and enabling the campus community to respond to the question, What stories are missing from Bryn Mawr College? Durrett's monument is the centerpiece of a collaboration between Bryn Mawr and Monument Lab known as The ARCH (Art Remediating Campus Histories) Project.

Durrett’s campus monument, titled Don’t Forget to Remember (Me), will be placed in the Cloisters at the center of Old Library and contribute to a broader effort of historical reckoning. In March, the College’s board approved the removal of the inscribed name of M. Carey Thomas, Bryn Mawr’s first dean and second president from the entryway of the building. Thomas’ racist and anti-Semitic views excluded many from attending Bryn Mawr and her legacy caused pain for generations of students, staff and faculty

Recently Nekisha Durrett A'98  visited the campus of Bryn Mawr College to receive an update on her Don't Forget to Remember (Me) ARCH project:

Bryn Mawr students, faculty, and staff filled Old Library’s Great Hall recently to hear from artist Nekisha Durrett, President Kim Cassidy, Monument Lab’s Paul Farber, and Professor of History of Art Homay King on plans for the installation of Durett’s Don't Forget to Remember (Me), a monument addressing a legacy of exclusionary practices at the College, that will be placed in the Cloisters at the center of Old Library.

The project will use custom pavers to create pathways in the Cloisters’ courtyard which, when seen from above, create a woven path that “takes the shape of a knot that cannot be undone, symbolizing interconnectivity, and making visual that Bryn Mawr is reexamining its history to tell all of its stories.” Engraved pavers will include the names of those Black staff whose work was critical to building and operating the College, particularly in its early decades, but whose contributions were historically unrecognized.

To read more about the selection of Nekisha Durrett A'98 for her Don't Forget to Remember (Me) ARCH project at the Bryn Mawr College campus, please click here.

To read about the recent visit by Nekisha Durrett A'98 to Bryn Mawr College for the project update, please click here.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.