Today we’d like to introduce you to Elkhair Balla.
Hi Elkhair, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My connection to the city of Atlanta runs deep. I attended Morehouse College before embarking on a career in Wall Street in New York City and working in Silicon Valley and now internationally in the Middle East. In the years since I have worked on various projects and sectors that have led me to travel the world. One of the projects I am most proud of started in 2019, after a close friend was able to raise some funds to establish an anti-confederate monument project, we launched a project to tell the African American side of the confederacy. We were able to commission famed sculpture Kwame Akomo-Bamfo in Ghana and thus launched the Blank Slate Monument. The statue was built in Ghana but then transported and housed in Atlanta as its home before exhibiting all over the country. The Statue has been seen by hundreds of thousands of patrons between 2021 and 2022. It was also unveiled in Atlanta at the King Center to celebrate the 58th anniversary of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and the 1963 March on Washington, DC. The statue is currently in Selma, AL where it will be exhibiting on the footsteps of the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the 21st of November.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We originally wanted to place the statue in front of a confederate monument, which as we all know are not lacking in America, and particularly the in the South. We spent a lot of time speaking with city and state officials in many states but we were never able to get permission to exhibit the monument in front of an actual confederate monument which are so protected and largely paid for by our tax dollars. We ended up putting the statue on the back of a flatbed truck and made the project a moving art exhibit similar to the “art cars” displayed at the famed Burning Man festival.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I think of myself as a creative strategist, whether it’s in technology or music or the visual arts, I like to be a part of teams that are creating and bringing attention to social causes. Although my background and education tend to skew heavy in analytical work, I pride myself as someone who uses those skills for projects that have creative aspirations that are both socially responsible and scalable.
Contact Info:
- Website: blankslatemonument.com
- Instagram: @elkhair
- Twitter: @elkhair
- Other: blankslatenft.io
