Michael Richards’ “Are You Down?”: Reflecting on our April 18 Conversation on Legacy and Storytelling
On Saturday, April 18, Dreams of Freedom—Michael Richards: Are You Down? featured a live podcast recording of Black Market Reads, a tour of Michael Richards’s Are You Down? sculpture at Franconia, and a handbuilding pottery experience with Mudluk Pottery. It was a day of lively remembrance, thoughtful reflection, and community learning celebrating the publication of Michael Richards: Are You Down?
Richards, a Franconia 2000 Jerome Emerging Artist Fellow artist-in-residence, originally created “Are You Down?” in fiberglass: self portrait life-casts of Richards wearing pieces of the Tuskegee Airmen uniform. After he died in 9/11 while an artist-in-residence in the World Trade Center, Franconia fundraised to have the figures recast in bronze, becoming Franconia’s only permanent sculpture. Richards was one of the earliest artists in Franconia’s residency program, before we had the residency house and 50 acres of prairie to ground our work.
Independent curator Esther Callahan organized a thoughtful event that began with some context on Richards at Franconia and segued to the book conversation led by Lissa Jones. Then, a walk to the actual sculpture, Are You Down? was an opportunity to experience the piece with others, and carried forward in conversations while handbuilding clay with Mudluk Pottery. This multisensory, multigenerational event did justice to the artist and contextualized Franconia’s role in the ecosystem of art and artists.
The live podcast recording was a powerful reflection on Richards’ work, legacy, and the ongoing responsibility of storytelling, featuring host Lissa Jones in dialogue with curator Esther Callahan, authors Alex Fialho, and Melissa Levin, and including a reading by Richards’ cousin and keeper of his work, Dawn Dale.
Michael Richards’ voice is included as part of the podcast, offering depth and emotion to the conversation via just about the only video of him talking about his work. This serves as an eerie reminder of what has—and hasn’t—changed since the 1990s.
Listeners can find the podcast recording on iTunes, Spotify, Libsyn, YouTube, and on the Black Market Reads website, where the hosts have also included bonus “Go Deeper” content to extend the conversation around Michael Richards’ “Are You Down?”.
When we think about where Franconia started, it didn’t look exactly like the big park you see today. Rather, Franconia has been rooted for 30 years in providing opportunities for artists to make big, bold statements in public art—statements that hinge on values and cultural history, part of stories that are generations’ old and yet not in the minds of everyone sharing the planet.
