Season 5, Episode 1: Curating the Remnants of Enslavement: A Conversation with Jason Young

In this episode, Paige Newhouse interviews Jason Young, co-curator of Hear Me Now: the Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina, a traveling exhibit housed at the University of Michigan Museum of Art centering enslaved artisans and the stoneware they produced.

Hear Me Now: the Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina is a traveling exhibit housed at the University of Michigan Museum of Art from August 2023 to January 2024. It centers the enslaved artisans near Edgefield, South Carolina, and the stoneware they produced, which are among the few goods made under American slavery left today. 

In this episode, season producer Paige Newhouse interviews Jason Young, associate professor of history at the University of Michigan and co-curator of Hear Me Now. Young discusses the labor that went into making the pottery and shares insights into master potter and poet David Drake. He also considers the ethical questions behind museum curation and the historical research behind the exhibit.

View the full episode transcript.

Historian Biography

Jason Young is an associate professor of history at the University of Michigan. His book, Rituals of Resistance: African Atlantic Religion in Kongo and the Lowcountry Region of Georgia and South Carolina in the Era of Slavery, examines the religious and ritual practices that connected West Central Africa with the Lowcountry. Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina was previously on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. After the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the collection will visit the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. 

Production Credits

Episode Producers:  Paige Newhouse, Elizabeth Collins

Host and Season Producer: Paige Newhouse

Executive Producer: Gregory Parker

Editorial Board: Amir Marshi, Enrieth Martinez Palacios, Talitha Pam, Cheyenne Pettit, Sophie Wunderlich

Interviews: Kendra Bolthouse, Catherine Simon, Pamela Bortolin, Roshan Sadhu, Andrew Jagielo, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, October 13, 2023.

Sounds: Paige Newhouse, “Yourist Pottery Studio”, Ann Arbor, October 18, 2023.

Music: Universfield, “Expoplanet” (Freesound, Creative Commons BY 4.0 Deed); ShadyDave, “Expressions of the mind (Piano loop)” (Freesound, Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0 Deed).

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