Renaming the Eugene Talmadge Memorial Bridge

by Aberjhani

Title

Renaming the Eugene Talmadge Memorial Bridge

Artist

Aberjhani

Medium

Mixed Media - Photography - Abstract

Description

This image of the Savannah River Bridge, officially named the Eugene Talmadge Memorial Bridge, is my commemoration of the first anniversary of the historic symposium held September 5, 2017, at the Savannah Theatre in Savannah, Georgia. The event marked the first time residents of the city were invited to an open forum in which they could discuss the need to change the name of the bridge (thus title for this image). Onstage panelists acknowledged that former Governor Talmadge's name should not remain on the structure as a memorial to him because of his well-known promotion of white supremacy throughout his political career.

Given Savannah's age and racial demographics, along with administrators' plans to position the city for a progressive leap forward, most agree maintaining the current name makes little sense. The push to get it changed made national news, and state representatives did in fact introduce House Resolution 1054 to suggest another name (albeit one many consider only slightly better in a historical context but strategically useful in other ways).

I previously posted 3 art images to both help support efforts to change the bridge's name and celebrate its beauty. A fifth will follow this one. Like the image titled "Savannah River Bridge the Morning After Hurricane Matthew No. 2," this one is obviously black and white. However, the Hurricane Matthew shot is a more realistic capture while the style for "Renaming the Eugene Talmadge Memorial Bridge" is closer to abstract. In addition, this utilizes the following quote from the title poem in my book, The River of Winged Dreams:

“A bridge of silver wings stretches
from the dead ashes of an unforgiving nightmare
to the jeweled vision of a life started anew.”

I chose not to use the quote (which many people share for New Year's Day) on any of the previous bridge images because I thought the issue was close to being resolved. But it appears some compassionate encouragement is still in order.

Aberjhani
September 2018

Uploaded

September 13th, 2018

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