Thursday, October 23 2025, 5:30 - 7pm The Willson Center, 1260 S. Lumpkin St. The Willson Center for Humanities and Arts will host a reception honoring the new book release by Akela Reason, associate professor of history and director of the Museum Studies Certificate Program. Her new book is Politics and Memory: Civil War Monuments in Gilded Age New York (Yale University Press, 2025). Snacks and light refreshments will be on hand, and the reception is open to all. From the publisher: A rich history of Gilded Age partisan politics, aesthetics, and the creation of New York City’s Civil War monuments... Illuminating the historical context of Civil War soldiers’ monuments in New York City, Akela Reason explores the complex and fascinating intersection of art, politics, and memory within these works, while also highlighting the ever-changing ways different constituencies have engaged with them in symbolic and physical terms.
