Chris Revelle will produce and show an alternative Lasershow that will provide context and dialogue around the Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial Carving as well as collective memory, monuments, and the public response.
As the debate over monuments and collective history comes to a tipping point, Atlanta has a unique ability to add to the conversation. Despite the city’s development and growth, there is one Confederate monument that cannot be overlooked. It is one of the country’s largest and most challenging memorials: the Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial Carving.
The carving on the mountain has a dark history that is hard to discover for the more than 4 million annual visitors. The carving first began at the time of the growth of the Ku Klux Klan and the height of the film, Birth of a Nation. The final work began during the 1960s as a response to the Civil Rights Movement and was eventually completed in 1972.
The face and the carving are also the site of a well-known and popular Lasershow, which Stone Mountain Park refers to as an “Atlanta tradition”. The show’s finale celebrates the Generals and President of the Confederacy while whitewashing history.