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Johnson-Cunningham: I think this exhibition reminds us
that artwork can be a part of the public landscape
and it doesn't only have to be within museums,
tucked away within a brick and mortar,
but out in the public.
Palmer: Public space -- it's everyone's,
and it's always very contentious.
You can have somebody playing music on the corner
and another person who's maybe sitting there
and trying to have -- you know, read in silence.
And I think that's a part of the complexity
but part, also, of the beauty of public space.
It's yours. It's mine. It's everyone's.
I'm Stephanie Johnson-Cunningham,
and you are watching "On Display"
on All Arts Network.
♪♪
Growing up in New York City,
there is always an opportunity to happen upon artwork,
whether it be visual art, performance art,
whatever medium it has been.
But a lot of the artworks
that are permanent fixtures in New York have been around,
like, colonial figures and different monuments
that we've seen people take issue with.
And so to have public art that reflects the past, the present,
and also what we see for the future is also really important.
I am here at the City Hall Park
to see Melvin Edwards' exhibition "Brighter Days."
So, City Hall Park is also the stage for many protests
here in New York City,
from Occupy City Hall to Black Lives Matter protests.
This site is very significant in many different ways,
and this exhibition is a really great backdrop
to what a lot of people are arguing for, right?
Which is freedom,
access, and also connectivity and change in many ways.
This is a very special exhibition for Public Art Fund.
It's working with an artist who is immensely important,
Melvin Edwards, bringing together abstract forms
with a set of personal iconography.
And in this exhibition in particular,
it was very special to bring together
works from the 1970s all the way to the present,
really focused in on the chain motif,
the symbol that partly evokes
the many metaphorical implications of change,
partly as a tool of bondage or violence or oppression,
but then also broken chains showing the work
as manifestations of liberation or rupture.
But Mel is also quick to say,
chain can have many other implications,
not just sort of negative or ones
that evoke violence or oppression,
but as much, chains of connection,
linkages between people,
and so likewise, linkages that sometimes
show generational connections.
Part of what I love about this vista
is that this newly commissioned piece
is framed with City Hall behind it,
and the figure atop of its cupola
has the scales of justice, you know,
which are held by a thin chain.
So, thinking about, you know, Mel's work,
chains of justice, connection,
you know, Mel just put so much in the work.
And it really speaks to the aspirations
of our culture, always.
I think him titling the exhibition
"Brighter Days" is so telling, too,
that it's not just about being stuck in that moment,
but really building and growing
and changing the framework of our country
and maybe also of our democracy, as well,
since we are here at the seat of our government in City Hall.
This piece is titled "The Promise," from 1984.
And he really did think about this work
as a passageway, you know, of sorts.
And during the election for the mayoral primaries,
everyone was using this as a backdrop.
So there's this great, great image of Maya Wiley
and AOC with, you know, this behind it.
It was sort of very interesting.
This passage also being an opportunity for us to think
about, you know, transformation...
Absolutely. Absolutely. ...in a sense, also...
What to live up to. ...I think is brilliant.
You know, the ideals of a citizen,
of a country, or of a community that we have to live up to.
And maybe in a year or two, hopefully we've made progress
on some of the issues that this artwork addresses.
And, you know, I'm sure new issues will come up,
and hopefully I'm sure there'll be artwork
that addresses those at that point.
♪♪
Palmer: Public Art Fund, which was founded in the 1970s
by a woman named Doris C. Freedman,
has always taken as its mission
to bring some of the most important art
from all around the world to the public of New York City
for free, open access for everyone.
Especially during the pandemic,
having exhibitions within public space
became even much more critical because our museums were closed.
And what I learned today was that the Public Art Fund,
their exhibition and their public art installations
increased during the pandemic
because there was such a need for it.
In general, people have been so thankful that they've had
something to visit beyond themselves in this time.
If you saw an artwork that was on a bus shelter, you know,
you could walk down the street, or if you wanted to make
a little trip to a park and see something, you know,
that everybody has, also, newfound love for their
local parks or the parks in our city.
A thriving art scene is a sign of a healthy democracy.
Palmer: Part of what we were hoping to do
with this exhibition was draw people's attention
to artworks that Melvin has
permanently on view throughout New York City.
It really shows the way that artworks can integrate
into their communities
and become touchstones for those communities,
and Public Art Fund really feels that art
is essential to a thriving democratic environment
and to creating a space that is inclusive,
welcoming for everyone, that has beauty and meaning
and addresses important issues and ideas.
♪♪
So, I'm here at the African Burial Ground
located in Manhattan.
I remember vividly the protests that happened
when the site was discovered.
I was a little girl growing up here in New York City,
and I remember, you know, seeing it in the news
or coming down to the city and seeing it face-to-face.
And it was really incredible
how much the community here in New York City
and elsewhere really advocated for the excavation of the site
and also the preservation of the site.
Brandini: So, the people who are buried
at the African Burial Ground, we don't have their names.
We don't know their individual identities.
But the people who are buried at the African Burial Ground
are the colony builders of New York City.
They were the ones who really built
what would become Broadway.
They built the wall
that would later give the name to Wall Street.
What happened in 1991
was they actually found the remains were intact.
So not only were individual remains found,
but there was also artifacts with those remains,
such as pieces of jewelry, clothing.
In 1991, when the first remains were found,
it really brought the community together.
It brought community leaders here to come
and speak about the enslaved Africans.
And it really brought a collective movement of people
who were protecting and preserving the site.
And really, people were just angry
that how can the federal government use taxpayers' money
to disrespect the ancestors?
What happened then was you had basically a movement start
where people were going to these meetings,
calling out the federal government for this disrespect.
What we have over here, we have seven mounds,
and under each mound is a crypt or a container,
each container holding roughly 60 coffins.
And basically, during the rights of ancestral return,
when the remains were brought back from Howard University,
they were put back into the ground
underneath these seven mounds.
The monument here was actually the winning design
in a competition,
and the winner was Rodney Léon and AARRIS Architects.
Basically, when they designed this monument,
there's many features,
each feature representing something different.
There's a lot of symbolism happening inside.
♪♪
Behind me, we do have what's a sankofa.
So, the sankofa resembles a heart.
The sankofa was actually believed to have been found
on the lid of a coffin buried here
at the African Burial Ground.
The meaning of sankofa,
which is a West African symbol, an Adinkra symbol,
is believed to mean,
"Learn from the past to build for the future."
What can we do to take that information
and bring it to the future?
So, as we're walking through the memorial, this is a journey.
So we're basically taking a journey from the physical world
to the spiritual world.
As we walk down this ramp,
we are getting closer to the ancestors.
Johnson-Cunningham: And so we have here this ancestral realm,
in a sense, that we're walking into.
But then, also, we are moving into water, as well.
We can hear the sounds of water.
We can see water.
You know, and that, also, is a huge representation
of this space, too.
Almost a meditative sense.
You don't really hear the sounds
of the streets of New York.
This really is an escape from the city, a place of quietness,
a place for contemplation, meditation, and prayer.
So it's very much an escape from the city.
♪♪
So, we're here in Manhattan.
When people think about slavery,
they don't really think about New York.
They think about somewhere in the Deep South
that happened, you know, so far away.
But knowing that it happened here in New York
is incredibly important.
And, also, that there is now a site that serves as a memorial
for both the free and enslaved Africans
I think is incredibly remarkable.
Year after year,
they celebrate this site with different ceremonies
where there are speakers and libations,
which is really, really important to continue
to commemorate and remember this history.
I mean, the story of the African Burial Ground
is a story on slavery and racial inequalities.
From 1600s through 1795, the African Burial Ground
was a place where enslaved and freed Africans could gather,
bury their loved ones, practice different traditions,
different ceremony styles,
and really come together in unity.
♪♪
What do you hope that people have a better understanding of
when they leave this site?
The African Burial Ground has an incredible story,
and it's just one of the many stories within New York City.
When I learned about this site,
I just felt like there needs to be more attention on this site.
There needs to be more education about this site.
I learned a little bit about colonial history
in school growing up in New York City,
but I never took a field trip down here,
never really talked about this site.
And this was in the news.
This was in the news since 1991,
2003 when the remains are reinterred,
2007 when the memorial is dedicated
and Dr. Maya Angelou and others come and speak.
The museum opens in 2010.
So really, I just felt like there
needs to be more education, more history shared with others.
I think it's so incredible as a New Yorker
to kind of see this history being lifted
and being celebrated, as well, and being acknowledged.
What are some people's reactions to the site?
Everyone reacts differently to the African Burial Ground.
Once people come into the site and learn its history,
you have people who do come in and they start crying.
You have people who come in and start laughing
because they just don't know how to feel, how to react.
I hope viewers of "On Display" will take away a better sense
of appreciation for arts and cultural institutions,
the research and all of the work
that goes into the existence of these spaces
that allow us to learn more in-depthly
a range of different histories of culture and of experiences.
♪♪