African Village

Joe Minter's "African Village in America" is located in southwest Birmingham, Alabama and is a history of America set up in his backyard. A sculpture park, the African village is a collaboration of umber, dolls, lawn ornaments, doors, and other found materials that he shapes, paints, assembles, and writes on, Minter has created a walk through "African Village in America," as he sometimes call it, a "reclaiming of the telling of history." The sculptures are like exhibits in a museum, each telling a different part of a historical story about civil rights, compassion, and historical and current events, nationally and locally.