Click here for public transportation options to the area. The monument is close to the Newark Museum of Art at 49 Washington Street. Harriet Tubman Square is near the intersection of Washington and Broad streets in downtown Newark’s arts district. To complement the monument, galleries at the Newark Museum of Art will incorporate stories related to slavery and the slave trade, Silvia Filippini-Fantoni, deputy director for learning and engagement at the Newark Museum of Art, said in a video interview published by the Harriet Tubman Monument Project. Audio clips will also be included in school curricula, in collaboration with the Newark Museum of Art. The audio experience includes the story of Tubman's life, narrated by entertainer Queen Latifah. Residents also recorded some of their personal stories for the monument's audio experience, according to the mayor’s statement. “Seeing their stories being a part of other stories of people from Newark in this mosaic that's on the wall and is attached to the backside of the wall that has Harriet Tubman's face, the central figure which grounds us in the larger-than-life story of Harriet Tubman.” “Not only are their stories physically a part of the monument, but they can also come to the monument and feel that ownership because they were really a part of creating it,” Cooke John said in her interview with the Harriet Tubman Monument Project. ![]() The portrait wall features a larger-than-life depiction of Tubman while the mosaic features stories from Newark residents. The monument includes two sections: a portrait wall and a mosaic of tiles, all contained within a circular learning wall inscribed with stories of Tubman’s life and Newark’s history of Black liberation, the mayor's statement said. “One way I wanted to bring about their connection is really to meet the community with the prompt, ‘What is your story of liberation? What is your story – big or small – of really overcoming multiple obstacles that we all have to overcome,’” Cooke John said in an interview published by the Harriet Tubman Monument Project.Īrchitect Nina Cooke John stands with the Harriet Tubman monument she designed, titled “Shadow of a Face” Monument designer and architect Nina Cooke John said she wanted to incorporate the Newark community into the monument. The monument was selected in June 2021 following a national open call and multiphase selection process, Baraka said. The name of Tubman's monument was inspired by the 1962 poem “Runagate Runagate” by Robert Hayden, which references the abolitionist. From 1850 to 1860, she made more than a dozen trips to Maryland to help enslaved people reach freedom through the Underground Railroad, a secret network of routes and safe houses, according to the US National Parks Service. Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland and eventually escaped to Pennsylvania. “We have created a focal point in the heart of our city that expresses our participation in an ongoing living history of a people who have grappled through many conflicts to steadily lead our nation in its progress toward racial equality.” “In a time when so many cities are choosing to topple statutes that limit the scope of their people's story, we have chosen to erect a monument that spurs us into our future story of exemplary strength and solidity,” Baraka said. The 25-foot-tall monument, titled “Shadow of a Face,” was revealed Thursday at the heart of the city’s recently renamed Harriet Tubman Square, Newark Mayor Ras J. (CNN) – A monument honoring famed abolitionist Harriet Tubman was unveiled in Newark, New Jersey, this week, replacing a statue of Christopher Columbus removed in 2020 amid social injustice protests, officials said. Known as Moses for her efforts, Harriet Tubman helped 700 or more enslaved people escape north to freedom via the famed Underground Railroad.
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