Rebuilding event planned for Sunday, April 2

By Morgan Rothborne, Rogue Valley Times

The Say Their Names T-shirt memorial at Railroad Park in Ashland was vandalized again this week, but the community groups responsible for the memorial meant to honor those killed in race-related attacks are not turning away from the grassroots public art piece — and instead are taking advantage of the moment. 

“To be able to use this, again, as an education moment — we’re not going away, we’re here,” said Gina DuQuenne, Ashland city councilor and staff liaison for the city’s Social Equity and Racial Justice Commission. 

The Say Their Names Collective — a group of community members long invested with maintaining the shirts — have organized an event for Sunday, April 2, to rebuild the memorial. 

At 1 p.m., the group invites people to come out with T-shirts and art supplies to decorate them to replace the missing shirts. Due to the probability of rain, the event will be held at Studio Z, 280 E. Hersey St., #1, in Ashland, rather than in Railroad Park, according to a news release issued by the Ashland Together group. 

“We’re kind of a new group. We started forming last November as a new effort to connect groups that already existed in Ashland but weren’t necessarily talking to each other. We work to meet with people and amplify things. We try to teach people about anti-racism and be an ally,” said Elizabeth Fairchild, a member of Ashland Together. 

DuQuenne said the latest vandalism attack on the memorial — the third overall —will be a testament to the determination of the Black and Brown people of the valley and their allies. 

Unlike previous vandalism attempts in which the entire fence of T-shirts was torn down overnight, this time the perpetrators took a different strategy. T-shirts were slowly taken over the course of several days. 

“I drive by Railroad Park probably three, maybe even four times a week. I started to notice the thinning of the T-shirts and I thought, ‘is it just me?’ And then a friend of mine texted me and asked, ‘Gina, what’s happening to the T-shirts?’ Then I knew,” she said. 

Once the reality of the disappearing shirts was confirmed, DuQuenne turned to organizing. 

“You email, you text, you call, you rally the troops. And Ashland shows up. Ashland always shows up,” she said. 

Fairchild remembered the first time the shirts were taken down and how quickly the community who care for them rallied together. 

“It started at about 10 in the morning, but probably at least 100 people showed up, and the T-shirts were back up by probably 5 p.m.,” she said. 

It has only been three days since the alarm was sounded, but already shirts have been donated to the collective, DuQuenne said. 

Micah BlackLight, an artist working on an Ashland public art piece called “Ancestor’s Future: Crystalizing Our Call,” wrote down all the names on the shirts to include in his sculpture. DuQuenne said members of the collective also recorded the names as they worked on the project, making replacing the shirts easier. 

“Although, unfortunately, more Black and Brown people have been murdered since the T-shirts were put up,” she said. 

DuQuenne said people sometimes ask her how long she and others with the collective will keep hanging T-shirts on the fence behind Railroad Park. 

“I say this isn’t T-shirts, this is the ‘Say Their Names Memorial.’ Right now, this is the only thing we have in Ashland for Black, Brown and Indigenous people,” she said. 

In an email thread with other community organizers, Fairchild made a suggestion: “I said every time a T-Shirt is taken down, we ask for donations, so every time one is stolen, money goes to the sculpture,” she said, referring to “Ancestor’s Future.”

The Say Their Names Collective could not be immediately reached for comment. 

To learn more or to donate, visit https://baseoregon.org/say-their-names/.

Reach reporter Morgan Rothborne at mrothborne@rv-times.com. This story first appeared in the Rogue Valley Times.