Fort Greene's MoCADA Opens Ubuntu Garden With Sculptural Series Depicting 'Living Legends'
The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art (MoCADA) celebrated its newly built-out Ubuntu Garden with music, a procession, and an unveiling of artwork.
Photo by Susan De Vries
The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art (MoCADA) recently celebrated its newly built-out Ubuntu Garden, located alongside a brownstone on a sliver of land previously used for parking. Billed as an “early look” at the space, the gathering on Friday, August 11 included music, a procession, and an unveiling of artwork.
The latter, named “Brooklyn Bronzes” in a nod to the Benin Bronzes, currently consists of 20 bronze mask-like portraits depicting “Brooklyn’s living legends — the Black pillars of our community who have contributed greatly to arts, education, and advocacy through their work,” according to a statement on MoCADA’s website.
Created by architect and artist Kholisile Dhliwayo, the sculptures are mounted in a line on the garden’s rear brick wall under an eye-catching two-story-high mural of the late art and music critic Greg Tate at 48 Lafayette Avenue on a busy corner a few blocks from MoCADA’s headquarters. Under each is a label with a QR code that plays audio of the featured person speaking about their “legacy, their joy, and resilience,” as MoCADA put it. The ongoing series could eventually immortalize 80 or more people.
Among those depicted are organizer and educator Lumumba Akinwole-Bandele, playwright and screen writer Lynn Nottage, founder and president of nonprofit Children of Promise Sharon Content, NYC urban planner Ibon Manar Muhammadi, Bed Stuy art gallery founder Richard Beavers, and MoCADA founder and former City Council member and current NYC Commissioner of Cultural Affairs Laurie Cumbo.
[Photos by Susan De Vries]
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