by adminThe city of Newark, New Jersey unveiled its long-awaited Harriet Tubman monument March 9 with great excitement. Four days of community celebrations and events followed. With visual, audio and tactile components, “Shadow of a Face” is not a statue to view from a distance, but a place to see, hear, touch, spend time and reflect on stories. Designed by Jamaican-born, Montclair-based Nina Cooke John, this unique public art project will be visited, studied, and celebrated for years to come.
Nina Cooke John’s design was chosen by a 14-member Harriet Tubman Monument Selection Committee out of dozens of submissions responding to a national request for proposals. “We could have just done a statue – but with this project we wanted to reimagine what public art could be,” said fayemi shakur, Newark’s Arts and Cultural Affairs Director, who oversaw the project. “Nina’s design was chosen because of her intentional, thoughtful ideas about engaging community. We also considered the challenges that other cities have had with community engagement.”
Harriet Tubman’s likeness is portrayed in two ways on the monument: a larger-than-life concrete portrait of her face at eye level, facing into the park, and as an abstracted, cloaked figure rising over 25 feet tall, visible from all directions. “She needed to be seen from far away… and there are multiple statues still in the park which are all men, so she really needed to be elevated to her rightful place of honor as we give her due praise for her achievements – not only as a conductor in the Underground Railroad, but also as a Union spy, suffragette and humanitarian for Black causes,” said Nina Cooke John at the unveiling ceremony. “But we can never fully know her. Much of the stories of enslaved people died with them… Nor should we ever elevate our heroes such that they’re not understood as being human. Because it is in their humanity that we see ourselves.” Much of the fabrication and installation of these large-scale components was done by Ferrous Research & Design, a team led by Gardenship.
Newark-based artist Adebunmi Gbadebo was hired as an apprentice to assist with community engagement throughout the project. “Harriet Tubman risked her own freedom to free others. She is the definition of a community leader,” Gbadebo said after the unveiling. “We can think of how her legacy transcends to our modern day when we consider, ‘Are we free if so many of Americans don’t have access to clean water, housing, proper education and health care?’ I think her legacy goes beyond just Black bodies and is something that all of us Americans should aspire to. Our goal as Americans really is to make every single citizen of this country free, in all forms.”
Read the full article on NewJerseyStage.com.