Descendants of slave, owner strike a chord at city gathering- The New Haven Register - Serving Great
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I'm proud to call Matt Monk an old friend of mine. He's not only a respected professor of design at the distinguished Rhode Island School of Design and a highly accomplished artist, he's one of the coolest people I know. He digs new music, old history, big dogs, makes connections and friendships easily, stays laid back in an uptight world. And then he does something really wonderful like establish a whole new family for himself. This summer at a reunion with all his family "down South" in the Newton Grove, NC area, Matt discovered that his great-great-great grandfather, Archibald Monk. had been a slave owner who had owned ancestors of the jazz piano great Thelonius Monk. Matt began research into his ancestral roots and discovered that ancesters of Thelonius Monk had taken their master's name which intrigued Matt. Could he find any of these ancestors today? With patience and persistence Matt ably researched his connection to this side of the Monk family. He eventually found and connected with Pamela Monk Kelley of New Haven, CT, whose father was the first cousin of Thelonius Monk. After contacting Kelley and informing her of their families' connections, Matt and his wife were invited up to New Haven to join Kelley and her family at their reunion. There, the circle of kindness, caring, and respect that began hundreds of years before between Archibald Monk and those who labored for him and loved him enough to take his name as their own found a wonderful, symbolic closure as the Monks from the South joined hands to walk hand in hand down the street to church with the Monks from the North. Matt Monk can take a little break now. He's accomplished a lot more than a painting or a book cover design this summer; he's built a bridge between generations and races, places and time.
