Featuring A’Dorian Murray Thomas, Newark Board of Education & SHE Wins, Nyle Fort (Books and Breakfast), and Charles Payne (Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies)

Featuring Layqa Nuna Yawar (Independent Painter & Muralist) and Mary Rizzo (Rutgers-Newark)

In 2019, 400 years after the first enslaved Africans arrived in Jamestown, our nation continues to experience a moment of intensity and uncertainty around public monuments — especially those that symbolize the enduring legacy of racial slavery and social inequality. One such monument is Newark's very own Wars of America, a massive sculpture built by sculptor Gutzon Borglum in 1926 for Military Park. Borglum, famed for creating Mount Rushmore, was also affiliated with Ku Klux Klan for whom he designed the Confederate Monument on Stone Mountain in Georgia. Working on these two sculptures at the same time, Borglum used granite from Stone Mountain as the pedestal for his sculpture in Newark.

Taking up the central question, What is a timely monument for Newark?, New Arts Justice and Monument Lab co-curated A Call to Peace, a public arts exhibition that features Manuel Acevedo and Sonya Clark, two internationally acclaimed artists whose work probes the intersections of Confederate legacies, collective memory, and racial justice. Moderated by Salamishah Tillet (New Arts Justice), this public conversation with Acevedo (Cam-Up), Clark (Monumental Fragment), and Paul Farber (Monument Lab) will reflect on the monuments we have inherited, while discussing the role of art to usher in new, democratic futures.

Program Schedule

4pm: Screening—Evolution of America: 1619 to Today

Auditorium. Entry at the South Wing of the Newark Museum, doors will open at 3:30pm.

This documentary examines the long-term effects of pivotal events—such as the arrival of the first Africans to English North America—that took place in 1619 and explores how these events helped define and shape the United States as we now know it.

5pm: Tour—1619 and the Newark Museum Collection

After the screening, a tour led by one of our Museum educators will explore some of the key pieces on display in the galleries and their relevance within African American history.

6pm: Artist Talk—1619 and Wars of America: Conversation with Manuel Acevedo, Sonya Clark, and Paul Farber. Moderated by Salamishah

Auditorium. If you’re arriving for just the talk, doors will open at 5:30pm at the South Wing.

Featuring Linda Caldwell-Epps, Sankofa Collaborative & Noelle Lorraine Williams (Rutgers-Newark)

Featuring Jasmine Wahi, Project for Empty Space & Adrienne Wheeler, Newark Arts Festival

Rain Location: NJ Historical Society at 52 Park Place