Religion & Spirituality

from New York Amsterdam News Issue June 16 - 22, 2022.

by AmsterdamNews

Union Matters

18 • June 16, 2022 - June 22, 2022

THE NEW YORK AMSTERDAM NEWS

A R T S & E N T E R T A I N M E N T A R T S & E N T E R T A I N M E N T

Religion & Spirituality

Public art exhibit honors legacy of nation’s first enslaved Africans freed decades before the Emancipation Proclamation

Kicking off the city’s Juneteenth celebration weekend, Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano along with sculptor Vinnie Bagwell, local artists, and community leaders will officially unveil The Enslaved Africans’ Rain Garden (EARG), along the Yonkers waterfront at 20 Water Grant Street, on June 17th from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. The urban-heritage sculpture garden honors the legacy of enslaved Africans who resided and worked at Philipse Manor Hall in Yonkers. The garden’s opening will feature the presentation of five life-size bronze sculptures of enslaved Africans who were freed decades before the Emancipation Proclamation.

“On behalf of the residents of Yonkers, I am proud our city is the permanent home to this poignant art exhibit that not only tells the remarkable story of some of our first residents but the place they and our city have in the nation’s complicated history,” commented Mayor Spano. “Public art has become a hallmark of Yonkers’ diversity and vibrancy—and the Rain Garden joins the growing landscape of beautiful expression here. Through Vinnie’s artistry and devotion to their journey, we are paying homage to the lives and sacrifices of our early ancestors and ensuring their voices are heard for future generations.”

Created by sculptor Vinnie Bagwell, the public artwork interprets the legacy of five enslaved Africans who were among the first to be manumitted by law in the United States in 1799 (64 years before the Emancipation Proclamation). The sculptures named “Themba the Boatman,” “I’Satta,” “Bibi,” “Sola,” and “Olumide,” will reside in a half-acre rain garden along the Hudson River esplanade. Each sculpture will be set in a vignette that includes a unique bench and landscape features of trees, shrubs and flowers with the backdrop of a stone-lined ravine flowing behind the sculptures. Each sculpture is designed to explore it for the entire 360 degrees, accented with prominent features on the backs of their garments.

Bagwell states, “Public art sends a message about the values and priorities of a community. In the spirit of transformative justice for acts against the humanity of Black people, I am grateful for those who supported this collective effort. The strongest aspect of the Enslaved Africans’ Rain Garden coming to fruition is that it begins to address the righting of so many wrongs by giving voice to the previously unheard via accessible art in a public place while connecting the goals of artistic and cultural opportunities to improving educational opportunities and economic development. Here is the impetus for the realization of the Enslaved Africans’ Rain Garden.”

The Enslaved Africans’ Rain Garden Initiative was incorporated in 2015 as a nonprofit 501.c.3 arts organization. The mission is to enlarge the perspectives on the subject of slavery, bring humanity and dignity to the memory of enslaved Africans; foster environmental responsibility and green stewardship; employ artists to create culturally resonant artwork to map the assets of communities; educate students in an art medium and advanced concepts unavailable in public-school programs; and foster cross-cultural dialogue worldwide.

The Enslaved Africans’ Rain Garden is funded by the City of Yonkers, the County of Westchester, the State of New York Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, the New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, ArtsWestchester, Con Edison, and Entergy.

Former Yonkers City Council Majority Leader Patricia McDow, ArtsWestchester’s CEO Janet Langsam, the Yonkers Board of Education, Sarah Lawrence College, historians, scholars, community-based organizations, and community members collaborated with Bagwell to develop the creation of the Enslaved Africans’ Rain Garden.

The design, construction, and landscape architectural plans of the Enslaved Africans’ Rain Garden were completed by BCT Design Studio, TJR Excavating Contractors, Inc., and Bowman Design Company.

Vinnie Bagwell was born in Yonkers, New York, and grew up in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County. A Morgan State University alumna, Bagwell is an untutored artist who began sculpting in 1993. She is an accomplished sculptor with 20 public-art commissions across the country. Bagwell won “Victory Beyond Sims,” a $1M public-art commission to replace the J. Marion Sims sculpture removed from Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street. Her notable public-art mentions include: “Sojourner Truth” at the Walkway Over the Hudson’s Welcome Center, Yesterday for Irvington, New York, two bas-reliefs sculptures to enhance a 112-year-old piano for August Wilson’s play “The Piano Lesson,” “Liberté” for the Alabama Historical Society and the Alabama State Council,“The Man in the Arena” a bronze three-quarter, life-sized bust of President Theodore Roosevelt, “Frederick Douglass Circle,” commissioned by Hofstra University in Hempstead New York. Her first public artwork, “The First Lady of Jazz Ella Fitzgerald” for the City of Yonkers was the first sculpture of a contemporary African American woman to be commissioned by a municipality in the United States. Civic engagement is the keystone to her practice. In 2020, she won the Americans for the Arts inaugural Jorge and Darlene Perez Prize for her civic-engagement practices.

Yonkers to unveil Enslaved Africans’ Rain Garden, an urban-heritage sculpture garden, along Hudson River (Photos courtesy of Maurice Mercado/City of Yonkers)

AmNews introduces Tandy Lau, new Public Safety reporter

By STEPHON JOHNSON

Amsterdam News Staff

It didn’t hit him right away, but the journalism bug bit Tandy Lau early enough.

“I got it my sophomore year of college,” said the Amsterdam News’ newest Report for America corps member who will be covering public safety. “Before then, I was figuring out what I wanted to do. I was studying Asian American Studies and kind of just picked it up, you know?”

Lau was born and raised on “Ventura Boulevard,” he said, which is right around the San Fernando Valley in California. He said the location of his upbringing was the catalyst for his personality and thought processes.

“You look south [of Ventura]: it’s mansions. You look north: it’s bungalows. It’s apartment buildings. It’s factory warehouses, right?” said Lau. “So I think because of that, you get to see both sides of LA.”

But what made him want to work specifically for a historically Black newspaper that caters to a predominantly Black audience?

“I think the idea of being able to write to a specific audience and being able to tell specific stories, and to advocate for specific issues is something I’ve always wanted,” said Lau. That’s part of Lau’s agenda: wanting to tell stories no matter whose stories they are. He wants what all journalists want: to inform the people. “It’s a cool way to live, right?” said Lau to the AmNews.

Lau’s journey took him from California to New York City where he studied at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and contributed to Character Media, an Asian American publication. But as Lau progressed academically, he wanted to make sure his light of hope didn’t dim as it did with other people he saw.

“The last year, working late, you know, going to grad school where everyone is a little bit idealistic and optimistic and likely to stand for stuff,” said Lau. “But even then, I think there’s a lot of…apprehension about wanting to really advocate for somebody through your journalism … There’s the idea that you’re not being objective, and not being balanced and amplifying voices. I often feel almost pressured to do that in a legacy newsroom.”

This fits in perfectly with Report for America’s ethos. Report for America (RFA) is a national service program that places talented emerging journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered topics and communities. Last year Ariama C. Long, who covers politics, joined the AmNews as its first RFA corps member. RFA supports local newsrooms by paying for a portion of corps members salaries and helping publications to raise the rest.

But where does “objectivity” end and “advocacy” begin for Lau? For him, it may be that those things are not exclusive.

“I think they see it more as advocacy journalism, when in fact [it’s] the kind of journalism that they’re [kind of] pushing that could be advocacy,” Lau said about the mainstream media. “It could be, you know, a form of advocacy journalism towards an upper middle class.”

On a much lighter note, the AmNews asked Lau about the first time he saw snow, since he is from the West Coast. He shared a feeling people who see snow regularly feel: “I think it was less intense than I thought it was,” Lau said. “And then… when you get deeper into December, January and February, that’s when…let’s just say it’s [not] a total coincidence that that was when I really got good at sending emails. There were less men and women on the street stories,” said Lau laughing about the winter and the challenge it presents for finding people to interview.

Report for America is paying half of Tandy’s salary and the AmNews is asking the community to help raise the other half by making a tax deductible donation here: https://tinyurl. com/fcszwj8w