350 Statues Coming to GG Park as Powerful New Art Piece
A new work of public art will rise in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Monumental Reckoning squarely addresses America’s original sin of slavery while guiding us to a more honest, inclusive, and uplifting future.
UPDATE: The installation was approved by both the San Francisco Arts Commission and the San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission’s Operations Committee. It is currently under review by the Planning Commission and will also need approval by the city’s Historical Preservation Committee before it can be installed.
Illuminate (the group behind The Bay Lights), artist Dana King, the Museum of the African Diaspora, and the San Francisco African American Chamber of Commerce will unveil the extraordinary new installation which features 350 steel-based statues (all about 3-4 feet tall) representing the original mothers and women of slavery, encircling and interrogating the plinth of the Frances Scott Key.
Monumental Reckoning
Public Art Unveiling
Debuts Friday, June 18, 2021*
Music Concourse, Golden Gate Park, San FranciscoThe proposal is for the art to remain for a two-year stay through June 20, 2023.
Learn More: GoFundMe | monumentalreckoning.org | Facebook | Instagram
Monumental Reckoning will encircle the memorial to Francis Scott Key that was partially toppled by protestors last Juneteenth by placing “350 ancestors” standing in judgment. San Francisco Mayor London Breed will formally unveil King’s dramatic presentation.
The unveiling will take place on Juneteenth, which celebrates the end of slavery in the United States. It will debut in tandem with an interrelated Illuminate project – the elevation of the words “Lift Every Voice” atop the newly-renovated Spreckels Temple of Music.
“Lift Every Voice and Sing” was written by James Weldon Johnson in 1900, the same year the Spreckels Temple of Music opened. For more than a century, it has been sung as the Black national anthem. Born in 1871, Johnson’s 150th birthday falls on Juneteenth this year.
*The original unveiling date was listed as June 19th, but was changed by the organizers to be June 18. Please check Facebook for updates.
