Talk
Artist Talk: Kenseth Armstead & Kendal Henry
23 Sep 2020
Regular hours
- Wed, 23 Sep
- 12:00 – 13:00
Timezone: America/New_York
- Language: English
- Join the event
Lunchtime artist talk with conceptual artist Kenseth Armstead and curator Kendal Henry. Armstead’s new public artwork Boulevard of African Monarchs celebrates the legacy of African excellence in America.
About
The installation is presented by the Marcus Garvey Park Alliance & New York City Department of Transportation’s Art Program (DOT Art). On view until August 2021 at 116th Street & Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd, Harlem, NY.
About Boulevard of African Monarchs
Boulevard of African Monarchs connects Harlem, a hub of African excellence in America, to Tiébélé, Burkina Faso, royal court of the Kassena people. The work reproduces house paintings by women artists, a tradition in Tiébélé that predates the triangular transatlantic slave trade. The sculpture transforms the marks into freestanding shapes that BREATHE.
Boulevard of African Monarchs is dedicated in loving memory to Emmett Till, Tanisha Anderson, Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and many thousands more who have been lynched in America.
Boulevard of African Monarchs is the first sculpture in the Sankofa_ project. Each site-specific work is inspired by “Sankofa” a word in the Twi language that means “go back and get it”. The works celebrate Africans and their diaspora, proclaiming Black Lives Matter in three dimensions. Sankofa_ honors, in monumental form, Black Beauty, free in the public square.