Site and memory are two inescapable through lines in the narrations of Florence that must be expanded to engage in a profound restructuring of our understandings of the Afro-descendent histories of this context. There are lingering remnants of colonialism with the capacity to evade critical dialogue through the gesture of nomenclature in relation to streets and squares that refer to figures and places obscure to many contemporary inhabitants of the city. These sites and memories, seemingly distant from the Renaissance façade that pervades many imaginings of Florence still hold space. Naming a street is an honorary gesture of commemoration that is perhaps more layered and generative of the benign neutrality that keeps criticism at a distance when compared to the commemorative placard as often the location of these streets or squares has little to do with the specificities of history that they seek to celebrate. This dislocation of time and space births an abstract relationship where the demographics and social realities of a site can be in utter contrast to the namesake that it has been ascribed.
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