“A Monument to Listening” is composed of 33 sculptures honed from basalt, including one that stands taller than the rest and is polished to have a reflective surface.

Several low black stool seat sculptures sit on a gray surface

Gates has said that “A Monument to Listening” attempts to “leverage the traditional monument to new potentials.”

A black man with glasses and a white shirt identified as the artist Theaster Gates speaks into a microphone

“A Monument to Listening” sits on the banks of the Mississippi River, near where Tom Lee saved the lives of 32 people in 1925. 

Several low black stool seat sculptures sit on a gray surface at sunset

Visitors to Tom Lee Park are encouraged to sit atop “A Monument to Listening’s” sculptures. The site will be activated by a regular schedule of community programming.

A group of people sit on black stool shaped sculptures

The redesigned Tom Lee Park, featuring “A Monument to Listening,” opened to the public in September 2023. 

A Black man with glasses identified as the artist Theaster Gates speaks into a microphone in a large group of people

As many monuments look back, A Monument to Listening celebrates Tom Lee’s heroic legacy by asking Memphians to look around (and listen).

A Monument to Listening 

Theaster Gates, shown here, wants local Memphian hero Tom Lee to be remembered as “a human who saw other human lives as equally valuable, if not more valuable, than his own.”

A Black man identified as the artist Theaster Gates wearing a white shirt and dark pants sits on a stool covered with a tarp

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An “Anti-Monument” Explores History by Asking for Dialogue

Artists as Catalysts

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Beyond Incarceration

A side profile of a Black poet who is wearing glasses and a hat with a feather hat pin.

Civic Engagement

A man in a brown jacket stands in front of blue bulletin board that is covered with papers and advertisements  

Evolving Higher Education

A vertical image of an Indigenous person who is sitting on a chair in front of a backdrop.

Expanding Public Knowledge

An interior room filled with audio and video equipment 

Monuments and Memory

A multicolored painted totem pole set in front of a foggy forest landscape

Multivocality

Five people stand together in a group photo. They are laughing and smiling.

Power of the Word

Five colorful neon signs hang on the wall with messages that include, "Freedom cannot wait," "Brown owned," and "America is for Dreamers."

Public Places‚ Public Stories

A group of Indigenous Maskoke people stand and sit in the wooden frame of a structure in a woods

Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora

In a vertical image, a black leather vest is adorned with colorful pins across the front of it. Embroidery on the vest reads: "Felícitas "La Prieta" Méndez" 

University Everywhere

Students walk through the campus of the University of Hawaii

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Mission

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History

Grantmaking areas

Grantmaking Areas

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People

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