The Story Goes On

In celebration of the region’s incredible artistic legacy, The Story Goes On is an interactive public art piece that provides space for emerging creative visions. This project pays particular tribute to local visionaries who have used their craft to advance social change. These thought leaders provided a critique on the world as it was and dared to imagine the world as it could be. We invite YOU to continue that tradition. Move the pixels to craft an image, tell a story, begin a conversation. Dream

This project could not have been completed without the support of the City of Durham Public Art Program, Durham Central Park, Inc., and the Liberty Warehouse Apartments.

We would also like to sincerely thank Bull Durham Fabrications, Lysaght Associates, Broker Manufacturing, and Reprocessed Plastics for their role in making this project possible.

Hidden throughout the piece are several quotations from figures who have had and continue to have an influence within the City of Durham. We would like to thank those individuals and/or the organizations that represent their estates for the use of their words.

  1. This to me is what art is all about—showing the spirit of man struggling above the mundane, above the material, above suffering.
    John Thomas Biggers
    Theisen, Olive Jensen. Walls That Speak: The Murals of John Thomas Biggers. Denton: University of North Texas Press, 19 Aug. 2016. Print. Link

  2. My life as a poet is completely interwoven with my life as an activist . . . I was called to the struggle, and the struggle liberated me so that I could express my experience in poetry.
    Minnie Bruce Pratt
    From an interview published in The Publishing Triangle, conducted by Carol Rosenfeld. Link

  3. To be creating anything at all . . . is an act of resistance in a world that silences so many.
    Saba Taj
    Kuruvilla, Carol. (2016, June 24). Queer Muslim Artist Saba Taj Sees Her Art As An Act Of Resistance. Link

  4. I think the need to help people to be able to speak up, to teach people how to speak up for themselves, is what gave me the drive to keep on pushing . . .
    Ann Atwater
    From an interview published in the Durham VOICE, conducted by Jock Lauterer. Link

  5. My work tells a story, and that is the most important thing to me, is to tell a story.
    Karen Lynch Harley
    North Carolina Folklife Institute. Link

  6. Art is the most complete and intense form of expression of the inner life. As such, it has the capacity to change . . . to listen, to bring forth points of view that people can grow from.
    Ernie Barnes
    "TV Land's Here's the Story: Ernie Barnes." Vimeo, 2010. Link

  7. I try to engage people through storytelling . . . I tell them that they can tell their stories, they can express themselves and especially, I tell them, art heals.
    Rosalía Torres-Weiner
    MyHome, NC. Link

  8. I like being part of this big, sparking, fantastic mind.
    Manju Rajendran
    Burge, Bridgette. (2006, February 14). Personal interview with Manju Rajendran. Link

  9. As long as you’re dancing together, you have no time for hatred.
    Baba Chuck Davis
    National Dance Education Organization. Link

  10. This is an ode to the moment before our toes leave the ground, where the impossible doesn't exist and we remember that we don't have to limit ourselves because someone else could not fathom a dream so big.
    Dare Coulter
    Ward, Rebecca and Max Rutledge. "Dare Coulter Right Before We Fly." The Black on Black Project. Link

We would also like to thank the wonderful people at the Franklin Collection at Duke University and their work on the Behind the Veil Project and the Southern Oral History Program from UNC's Center for the Study of the American South for additional assistance in uncovering stories from the region's past. We highly recommend that you check out their resources.