Spencer Bailey

That it's not just about loss.

I mean, when I was organizing the book, actually, I did five different essays that are interspersed as a means of saying that you can read this book in a multitude of ways.

And each essay has an emotional theme.

And it's fear, strength, grief, loss, and hope.

And I did that because I think...

These sorts of spaces, when they're at their best, allow you to feel all of those things.

And to bring it back to Montgomery, you'd certainly feel that when you're entering this pavilion, there are these corten steel columns.

Each is about six foot long, like a human body or a casket.

And each one represents a county where different lynchings took place.

And on that pillar are the names that they have documented of the people who were hanged and the name of the county.

It's a circular pavilion that has a sort of Terrell-like interior that opens up to the sky.

And when you walk into it, the slope begins going downward.

So at first, the pillars are eye-level.

But then you find yourself underneath them looking up.

And it creates this sort of uncanny feeling of realizing that you're like, you become the observer.

And you're effectively watching the history of the hanged.

There's also a very selective group of, I don't know, several dozen wall texts as you get deeper into the pavilion that explain who was hanged and why.

And when you realize the absurdity of the reasons why, it just makes it all the more infuriating and sad and just gutting.

Yeah.

Rageful.