PREMIERING SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 9 at 6:30 PM

On All Platforms: YouTube, APT Broadcast, and the PBS App

In 1989, retired construction worker and Vietnam veteran Joe Minter asked God what he could do to heal the suffering and division he saw in the world. The answer? Art.

Sun., Nov. 9, Monograph will premiere a 30-minute feature on world-renowned artist Joe Minter, exploring his life-long work the African Village in America. The project is a half-acre sculpture experience constructed around his home in the Titusville neighborhood of Birmingham, using found objects, reclaimed metal and store-bought materials. Thousands travel to see his 400-year historical record of Black people in America, from slavery to Jim Crow to convict labor.

“He was someone that we had wanted to do a feature on for forever,” Producer J. Whitson said. “And the impetus for it really was the “Joe Minter Is Here” art show that happened last October.”

Minter struggled to receive recognition in his hometown, even as his work stood in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Whitney, The National Gallery, and more. But for the first time, his work was displayed in Birmingham in the 2024 exhibition “Joe Minter is Here.” It featured never-before-exhibited work inside the historic Marc Steel building and introduced his work to a new generation.

“And who is it I’m talking for?” Minter asks in the episode. “The next generation that you are blocking all the progress [from]…And I’m going out telling my children this right here: we will be free at last.”

During the feature, Monograph host Jennifer Wallace Fields guides us through Minter’s work with help from Jade Powers, Birmingham Museum of Art’s Contemporary Curator, and Glenny Brock, former journalist and Education Coordinator of the exhibit.

In the episode, Fields asks Brock why it’s important for kids to experience Minter’s work in person. “To meet an artist that went to the same elementary school you did,” Brock says. “I mean, it’s like that artist is you and you are that artist.”

After decades of activism, last month the City of Birmingham recognized Minter with the Putting People First Award during its annual celebration AWAKEN, an event honoring local changemakers.

“Art has always been a language of liberation,” said Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin. “Through AWAKEN, we celebrate artists and advocates like Joe Minter who remind us that creativity is not only an act of expression, but also an act of resistance—a tool to awaken justice in all of us.”

“Peacemaker” is the title Minter has claimed for himself, again and again, throughout his life. But in the art world, he’s referred to as an “outsider” artist, or someone who is self-taught. Historically, it’s been a way to separate certain artists from the greater art world, according to Outsider Artist Museum & Gallery. Self-taught Alabama artist Thornton Dial dealt with similar challenges of recognition.

“When the Thornton Dial documentary, “Mr. Dial Has Something to Say,” came out, it didn’t have much of Thornton Dial having any say. It was more about the art world and some prejudice that exists in it… Like putting [outsider artists] into this corner or box, or whatever. So with this [episode], I really wanted to have Joe Minter’s voice in it, and have…what Joe has to say with his art be the most important part of the whole thing,” Whitson said.

“I thank God for giving man the gifts for art. Without art, children have no dream into the future. Art is the one way man can have a common thread that would connect the hearts of all people. Art is for universal understanding. There is no “insider” or “outsider” art, because art is one. All that we know, all that we have been, can be explained in art.” – Joe Minter, taken from collector and curator William Arnett’s collection of interviews and correspondence.

Watch “Joe Minter” on all platforms, APT’s YouTube, APT Broadcast, and the PBS App, Sun. Nov. 9 at 6:30 p.m.

Get an overview of the entire Monograph season and stream every episode here.