This photograph depicts a poem engraved on the wall of the upside-down ship at downtown Manhattan’s African Burial Ground. This four-line poem is brief, but powerful. The repetition and parallelism of “For those who” makes for a resonating, emphatic message. This poem was perhaps selected to be displayed because it promotes remembrance and embracing of the past, in which Africans were carted off unwillingly into slavery in America. It is also a way to remember those who died during this process, as the site is a burial ground.
On my first visit to this location, I learned about the controversial past of the excavation in which the General Services Administration wanted to build an industrial complex over the bodies that were discovered instead of turning the site into a historically important landmark. To me, this type of controversy is disappointing, as it is yet another example in which the past of African-Americans is overlooked or deemphasized.
The site is small and currently beneath scaffolding work, but it is beautiful. The water streams, the map of the world pervading the floor, the circular inscription of the retrieved bodies coalesce into one fluid, emotional architectural monument.
