Standing in for the Ancestors
Standing in for the Ancestors
MONUMENTAL RECKONING &MONUMENTAL RECKONING 2024 Juneteenth
MONUMENTAL RECKONING 2024
WHO?
You and 349 OTHER Black women; including trans, non-binary, gender fluid folx will... and ALLIES/ Witnesses
WHAT?
...surround the empty plinth where the statue of racist coward Francis Scott Key (He wrote the words to the U.S. National anthem, 3rd Verse is Hate-filled) stood until protestors brought it down.
There will also be photo & video documentation as well!!
WHERE?
At the music concourse in Golden Gate Park between the de Young and the Academy of Science Museum
https://sfrecpark.org/1544/Getting-to-the-Music-Concourse
WHEN?
Juneteenth (Wednesday, June 19th) You: 12:00-2:00 PM Program is from 1-2 PM
WHY?
The monument that housed Francis Scott Key is still in the Golden Gate Park resonating with racist hate. The figures of MONUMENTAL RECKONING representing the ancestors are gone. For 2+ years they stood representing African descendants in America in defiance of Francis Scott Key & white supremacy.
This Juneteenth we are standing in their place as our ancestor's wildest dreams.
We will lift every voice on Freedom Day honoring our ancestors on the empty plinth where the statue of the racist coward Francis Scott Key stood until
PROTESTORS TORE IT DOWN IN 2020.
MONUMENTAL RECKONING June 2021-January 2024
EVENTBRITE MONUMENTAL RECKONING
MONUMENTAL RECKONING
CREATED BY SCULPTOR DANA KING
Representing the first Africans stolen from their homeland and sold into chattel slavery in 1619, the 350 "Ancestors" encircle the vacant plinth of the slaveholder Francis Scott Key which was partially toppled by protesters on Juneteenth 2020.
Monumental Reckoning creates a sweeping throughline from America’s original sin of 250 years of slavery, to the evolution and imposition of a brutal and pervasive color-based caste system, to this moment of racial reckoning across America. Monumental Reckoning was formally installed on June 18, 2021 in a ceremony led by
San Francisco Mayor London Breed.
Adjacent to this creative work of fearless examination, the universal beckoning of "LIFT EVERY VOICE’ was installed above the historic Spreckels Temple of Music on December 1, 2021. The words, written by civil rights champion James Weldon Johnson, are the first words of his "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," the defacto Black National Anthem.
The Video: MONUMENTAL RECKONING
Our Team
We're teaming up with our broader Bay Area Black community... we're Sculptor Dana King, Mark Allan Davis (Artist & Associate Professor of Africana Studies at SFSU), San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, and Illuminate the Arts, among others.
The Program will include guests, music, readings, a convocation, and a processional-
ATTIRE
Wear BLACK as a BASE... and comfortable shoes...