Trailblazing Women

New York City has only five statues honoring female historical figures. (There are 145 male historical statues.) The five statues include Joan of Arc, Golda Meir, Eleanor Roosevelt, Har­riet Tubman, and the American author Gertrude Stein, pictured above at Bryant Park. Stein’s placement near the New York Public Library reflects her significant literary contributions, including plays, librettos, film scripts, and novels, as well as her influence on American writers. But Stein (and the others) won’t be alone for too much longer. This week during the start of Women’s History Month, NYC First Lady Chirlane McCray announced four more permanent monuments (along with the previously announced statue of Representative Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress) that will honor "the trailblazing women who have helped shape New York City." The statues will depict Billie Holiday, the iconic singer; Elizabeth Jennings Graham, who fought racial segregation in 19th century New York City; Dr. Helen Rodríguez Trías, a leader in pediatrics and public health; and Katherine Walker, one of the first female light house keepers who is credited with saving at least fifty people. "We cannot tell the story of New York City without recognizing the invaluable contributions of the women who helped build and shape it," McCray told reporters at a press conference. “In honoring these four trailblazers today, New Yorkers will have the opportunity to see powerful women who made history receive the recognition they deserve."

Picnic

With temperatures hovering around freezing, gray and overcast skies almost every day, and snow in the forecast, the only way we’re getting through this winter is thinking about lovely summer days to come. And what says summer more than a picnic in the park? Artist Tamara Johnson’s aptly titled Picnic was specifically created for Maria Hernandez Park and the surrounding Bushwick community, and lets us imagine, if only for a moment, that it’s warm enough to eat outdoors. The hand-cast concrete picnic scene “symbolizes the gathering, relaxing and sharing we experience with friends and family” and turns “a temporary happening into a static monument for participation and contemplation.” The sculpture is on display until the first day of spring (March 20).

Triumph of the Human Spirit

Triumph of the Human Spirit is one of the sculptures that the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation is highlighting during Black History Month to honor the African American experience. This fifty-foot granite abstract sculpture, by artist Lorenzo Pace, is inspired by the “Chi Wara” carved antelope headdresses of the Bamana people in Mali, West Africa, and sits within a boat-like structure symbolizing the “middle passage” of enslaved Africans to the West Indies and Americas. Set in Foley Square in downtown Manhattan near the site of a Colonial-era African-American burial ground where as many as 10,000 men, women, and children were interred (residents of African descent in New Amsterdam and New York were enslaved from 1625 until 1827), the sculpture “symbolizes freedom and endurance.” The park’s signage also notes: “Besides its universal message, it was created with the artist’s own personal ancestry in mind, and its granite base contains a replica of the inherited lock and key which were used to enslave his great-great grandfather Steve Pace.”