116th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Blvd/St. Nicholas Avenue in Manhattan

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DOT ART, THE MARCUS GARVEY PARK ALLIANCE, AND ARTIST KENSETH ARMSTEAD INSTALL MONUMENTAL SCULPTURE PAYING HOMAGE TO HARLEM

Harlem, NY- The New York City Department of Transportation’s Art Program, Harlem based non-profit, the Marcus Garvey Park Alliance and New York-based artist Kenseth Armstead are pleased to announce the installation of, Boulevard of African Monarchs, within the pedestrian refuge on 116th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Blvd/St. Nicholas Avenue in Manhattan.

In Boulevard of African Monarchs, Armstead connects Harlem, a hub of African excellence in America, to Tiebele, Burkina Faso, royal court of the Kassena people, in Western Africa. The 10’ x 10’ x 15’ sculpture transforms traditional Tiebele house paintings by women artists, a tradition that predates the triangular transatlantic slave trade, into an open freestanding sculpture where the public can gather, journey and connect. Boulevard of African Monarchs is the first sculpture in Armstead’s Sankofa_ series. 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. Each site-specific work in the project series is inspired by, “Sankofa” a word in the Twi language that means “go back and get it.”