[inspirational music] - [Tammy] There is nothing to be gained from hiding from our history.

There is nothing patriotic in looking away from our nation's original sin.

It is only through facing the truth together that we can find a way forward.

[inspirational music continues] - [Announcer] Three, two, one.

[crowd cheers] - We are here to celebrate the unveiling of the Harriet Tubman monument, Shadow of a Face, which honors Harriet Tubman's life and work as a freedom fighter, and also Newark's place in that fight for freedom and liberation.

- It's important that we spotlight those perspectives and stories of African American and Indigenous people that still remain untold.

Many of the underground railroad stations resided in New Jersey, and at least one was here in Newark.

- What we are doing today is not erasing history, but completing it.

We are not demeaning other people's stories, we're telling our own.

Today is our day.

It's about us on the outskirts of freedom with a rock and a slingshot, our journey in a promised land with nothing but faith and the North Star.

It's about backwoods prayer meetings and songs that hid our scent from dogs on the hunt.

It is our day, this moment, this monument is about us, that in our story, Moses is a Black woman, [crowd cheers] ragged, clothed with a Bible and a shotgun.

She parted our Red Sea for us and marched through terror and hatred, and as herself, a real person, not fiction, or some make-believe Marvel superhero.

She went and got us over and over and over again.

[audience cheers] - This monument will spark appreciation for a woman who defined courage and a humble, powerful radicalism based in the fundamental ideals of love.

It should inspire all of us to action.

It should inspire all of us to love our country, not through what we say, but through what we do.

The children of today know they stand on the shoulders of giants like Harriet Tubman.

- It's the right place and time to commemorate the amazing achievement of a Black woman.

[gentle music] My name is Nina Cooke John, and I'm the artist who designed the Harriet Tubman Monument in Newark.

The duality that I really was hoping would come through in the design was this idea of Harriet Tubman, this larger-than-life figure, as well as Harriet Tubman the woman, someone who we could connect to at a personal level.

I had some initial ideas about who Harriet Tubman was, but in doing further research, there was this one line, a quote of hers where she mentions that when she made it to safety, she was free, she realized that there wasn't any true happiness for her without her family.

And it was because of that need for connection to the people that she knew and loved, that she decided to go back.

I truly believe that public space is where we connect to each other.

So it was important to me that the Newark community felt that this monument was their monument.

[machines whirring] [upbeat music] [upbeat music continues] [grinder buzzing] [upbeat music] This is one of the end panels, so you can see they've engraved in this piece of wood, they cover it with this aluminum sheeting here to protect the wood so it doesn't completely shatter when they are getting the text in it.

There's also gonna be audio going on the outside, so they also have preparations in the wood.

Ariel would send me photos or videos and to see it come to life, it's like, oh my God, you know?

Be still, my heart.

It's coming together.

I think I'm gonna cry.

[upbeat music] - We connected with various institutions and community organizations and groups throughout the city of Newark, and we had community members answer questions, like what is your liberation story?

What is something that you struggled with and overcome?

Who is Harriet Tubman to you?

And we had the community answer those questions in visual or written form on Mosaic tiles.

My name is Adebunmi Gbadebo, and I am the community apprentice for the Harriet Tubman Monument project.

Nina created a process that really welcomed everyone into not only the conversation and the ideation, but the physical, the actual making of this monument.

So everyone played a role, and I think it really spoke to Harriet Tubman's legacy.

[upbeat music] [machines rumbling] [upbeat music continues] - Frederick Douglass said, "What does the 4th of July mean to a slave?

It's mere bombast, arrogance even, to talk about justice and freedom when there are millions of people that are enslaved in this country."

That contradiction pushed America to become more egalitarian.

Nobody's existence here would be the same without the work that Harriet Tubman did in the Underground Railroad, and particularly for Black people, because our journey, our history is very specific, very peculiar and different than all other Americans that are here.

We are the only people that were made human beings by act of court, and we thought it was important to highlight that history for folks who didn't know it.

And so Harriet Tubman became a symbol of that for us.

[group singing and clapping] Right after George Floyd murder, there are a lot of people who are protesting and angry.

[statue thumps] - [News Reporter] Protestors across America are tearing down and damaging memorials that they say honors racist figures.

- We need to take that energy and build the world We want to see.

- We participated in the creation of the monument in different ways.

One of the main aspect was really the creation of these tiles, these personal liberation stories that Newark residents have created in the past year.

Another aspect was in organizing a number of events that would really celebrate the legacy of Harriet Tubman.

- [Harriet] And I'm free beyond my grave.

[upbeat music] - Museums are not neutral.

You know, the artists are telling stories that people wanna hear, and it is our job to present these stories and to help move forward.

[people chattering] [bright piano music] - Knowing that locals participated in creating this monument, it remind us of what we stand for and where we can go.

- I did two designs, actually.

I did the North Star and a love symbol in the middle, and then one of the safe houses.

We have to work hard, get opinions from other people so that we can all come together - To make an impact, you have to take a risk.

Harriet Tubman let so many routes to and from without any injuries, right?

I think that she took awesome risks.

To see your work a part of a larger project is a great feeling.

If more of our students see people that look like them, then they really feel valued, right?

- It sits 25 feet high, and so you can see it from all across the park.

And then in rings that radiate out from the central section there is what we call the learning wall.

So this becomes an arc that has, on one side, the stories of people who are part of the Newark's Liberation Movement, and on the outer surface, there's the timeline of Harriet Tubman's life.

So you are encouraged to walk out in one area to get one part of the story, Harriet Tubman's story, and then you're encouraged to walk along the same surface on the inner side to learn the larger story.

[gentle music] Another major item is the wall that we call the portrait wall, which is a wall that holds a larger-than-life portrait of Harriet Tubman.

On one side is her face, and on the other side of that wall is the mosaic of tiles of people who left their stories at the community workshops.

Connecting all of those pieces is what I'm calling Harriet Tubman's Cloak, which is a trellis that extends from the central figure of Harriet Tubman out across from the learning wall, and the overall experience is this kind of labyrinthine walk in and around and through the monument.

[gentle music] - And so it becomes both an educational opportunity and an inspirational opportunity.

Harriet Tubman in her teens, as an enslaved person, as a woman, as a girl in the deep South, fought for her rights.

She served during the Civil War as a nurse and a scout and a spy.

She worked for the government, and never was she fully paid.

So this is the person who helped free 70 enslaved people who fought for this country, nursed soldiers in fields, served as a scout and help to free enslaved people on a mission.

In her last years, she had a home for people who didn't have a home.

When we think of resiliency and we think of commitment, how many heroes can we count that have a history like this?

Harriet Tubman was not the only person doing this.

There were thousands, if not more, African Americans across the country who were standing up to the violence that was a part of slavery.

What this monument does is show you the long history of Black liberation in Newark.

And, no, it does not start in the 1960s.

It starts way before.

- The Tubman Square Park is our front yard, and so we saw this as a tremendous opportunity to really plug in and demonstrate how we are really making direct investments in the community.

And we found no better way to do that than to really leverage our studios and tell the story in a fully immersive audio way.

- [Queen Latifah] Not long after Harriet Tubman escaped her life as an enslaved woman in Maryland, she traveled from Philadelphia, a stronghold of the American abolition movement.

- Representation matters.

These stories matter, and I think that the timing is right.

Quite frankly, the timing's probably overdue.

- I learned so much doing this.

I'm truly inspired by Harriet Tubman when I go about my work daily, because this work never ends, and the work of changing the world never ends.

The work of Black women never ends.

[audience cheers and applauds] - This, indeed, is a incredible day.

This is the culmination of hundreds of years of history.

Our ancestors are looking down at us today.

They're smiling and they're saying, thank you for carrying this forward.

[lively music plays] Today we are honoring General Tubman, Araminta Ross, AKA Minty, AKA Harriet Tubman, AKA Moses of her People, a true, true advocate for freedom.

- Harriet Tubman, known as a conductor of the Underground Railroad, was honored with the new monument and a city square now bearing her name.

- It really means a lot to come outside of my home and, like, see her here, you know what I mean?

- The Harriet Tubman monument is probably one of the first monuments that was created after all of the statues went down.

We don't believe that anything can be done in the city without art and culture involved in it.

This is a part of a larger art and culture district that we are in the process of creating in this area.

I just believe that 100,000 artists can make a city safer than 100,000 cops.

- It's amazing watching it go up, and I can't wait for Newarkers to be able to experience it and take it in.

- Monuments, parks, other recreational spaces.

They're seen as the public good because they enrich the souls of the people.

I hope that she becomes an entryway for people to learn about the stories of African Americans who lived on these streets, right around the monument.

- Artists have the power to inspire, to imagine a different reality, and it's really gonna take that same process for us to move forward and really start to dismantle some of these legacies of slavery.

She was a Black woman, but I think her legacy and her impact, we all benefit from it.

[upbeat music] [audience cheers and applauds] [upbeat music continues] [audience cheering continues] - Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you to those of you who believed in my vision for re-imagining what a monument could be like, what a monument could look like, feel like, and sound like, how a monument could be a living space connecting the stories of the past to the stories of today.

This commission has meant a lot to me as an artist, as an architect, as a woman, and as a mother of Black girls.

This is not a legend.

It is about a legacy.

Shadow of a Face is dedicated to the women of Newark.

I see you.

You know who you are.

You might not all be in this room today, but I see you.

[audience cheers and applauds] [bright music] [bright music continues] [bright music continues] [gentle music] [bright music] [bright music continues] [bright music continues] - You are a fight so worthy that one woman would risk freedom for freedom.

This young woman who was counted out and scarred, marked with a scar on the head, perhaps a symbol, a sign of a sixth sense.

The kind of sense, so divinely foolish, it was wisdom.

I mean, she couldn't read a map, but she could read the heavens, and well, who needs a map when the stars answer to you?

Araminta Ross knew how to be abased and knew when it was time to abound.

She, one young Black woman, but a majority, set out as Araminta, came back a Moses, because that's what a freedom will do.

It will call you by a new name.

So this majority walked.

Maryland to Delaware, 197 miles.

Delaware to Pennsylvania, 94 miles.

That's 291 miles from who you thought I was to who I say I am.

Harriet Tubman fought a fight so worthy, she would risk freedom for freedom.

[bright music continues] She held both Minty and Harriet in the palm of each hand, put them together and prayed her way through pitch black valleys, shadows, death, rivers, rivers as deep as the many souls that we've lost in water.

[waves crashing] Don't you know that every ocean floor from here to Africa carries the souls of our families' path?

Araminta Ross walked through waters baptized with each step one step closer, one step closer to the freedoms that she said that she would die to see, one step closer to Harriet.

[gentle music] Because, God, is not how you start the race.

It's how you finish it.

Araminta started it, but Harriet, Harriet would be the one to finish it.

But I think she was always Harriet, if you understand what I'm saying.

Jesus didn't become the Messiah until he rose, but he was, he was always the Messiah.

So she went on to make it or to die, to remain or to become.

She made it.

She knew that there was a home for her, and that home was not where she was going, but rather what she could be when she got there, but not alone.

A fight so worthy that she would risk her freedom for yours.

So she made no less than 13 trips back, back to Egypt, because she knew what God could do once, could be done twice.

A fight so worthy, she would risk freedom for freedom again and again.

[gentle music continues] Harriet Tubman didn't know what would become of Black liberty, but she left a legacy that told us that in our lifetime that we are worthy of the fight.

And I know that we are treading on hope from Emmett Till to Tyre Nichols, yet in our lifetimes, we are still worthy of the fight.

She left a legacy that told us that in our lifetimes, that we must live like we have the right to, a fight so worthy that you would risk freedom for freedom.

A people so worthy, a people so worthy, a people so worthy, a people so worthy, a people so worthy, a people so worthy, a people so worthy of a fight that, yes, may last a lifetime.

And yet while you fight, you better live like you have the right to.

[gentle music continues] [no audio] [wind whistling] [gentle music] - She made up her mind to get free.

♪ I followed the light, I followed the light ♪ - To get free, to get free, to be free, to be free.

She made up her mind to get free, to get free to get away, to get away from the dark forces, pushing and pulling, whipping through the trees.

She said, forget them brown bodies blowing in the breeze.

She couldn't take it.

She couldn't take it.

She couldn't take it.

She had to break it.

She had to break it.

She had to break it free.

She had to spark it, insist on its reality.

She sparked herself into a railroad, stealing our hearts while we explode above the ground, through a field.

When we make up our minds, when you make up your mind, when she made up her mind.

Harriet, she made up her mind.

Started planning her escape, her escape, her escape through a field.

She was a song when the sun goes down.

She was all liberty or death, riding on the troop, treble clef of what's left.

What's left inside you when nothing is left?

Pulling you, driving you what lives inside you forever?

What, what lives inside you forever?

What wants to escape to freedom?

19 trips to freedom, freedom, freedom.

Stop being a slave to chips.

Stop being slaves to beliefs.

Let them fall where they may.

let go of the ones that don't matter to today, today, today.

19 trips, begin that journey, take a step.

Don't turn back.

Don't forget.

Don't be scared.

Go, go, go, go, go, go on, go on, come on, come on, come on.

You go on or you die.

Under the blue sky, she pointed her gun at him.

Do you wanna be free?

Do you want to be free?

Do you want to be free?

Do you want to be free to dream?

Free to be free, free to be new, to escape, escape, escape yourself.

Escape the dark, black color of night break, break like day, like sun, the sun.

The past is a master?

No sir, no sir, no sir.

♪ And before I be a slave ♪ I'll be buried in my grave ♪ And go home to my Lord and be ♪ The master of my faith.

[gentle music] [wind whistling] [gentle music continues] [wind whistling] [wind whistling] [heart beating] [gentle music] - [Kween] Ordinary people like sisters and mothers, fathers, rona farmers and daughters, these are my people.

♪ Today Lord - They are all my people being kept and unkept at the same time.

Set them free, and I mean, set all of them free.

They are not yours.

Get your fingertips off of them.

A minty substance on the tips of all of their tongues.

They've been wondering who and how tall, never bravely held, but held captive.

Can't no grounds hold me captured.

Can't no grounds hold me captured and deny me leaving.

A mundane belief.

The fields bear my whole name, my calling.

These cornrows and sun rays, specifically on Sundays when the moon is out telling our business.

These dark nights don't smell right and for certain, they don't smell of God.

They don't smell of God.

Where's the recovery in having your body and soul mishandled and handed over, deteriorating to the unknown, to tend to the mouths and the needs of all of your children?

Is that why I am here?

Is that why I am here?

Is that why I am here?

Where is the recovery when life lived like this is a tragedy, when witness, when the stories pass down to our kin, they are only stories.

And they be watching from their graves.

Tragedy it may be, though I am not.

Quiet was our greatest secret.

We've known and we've been silent, screaming out loud, looking for remnants of all people.

Can't keep up in the fabric, in the trees, where we swung high in the noon where we've lived.

[gentle music continues] So give me a reason to stay.

Give me a reason to stay when my life ain't in question, and free me.

Free me and get me out of here.

Let me walk my own road, gravel and stone beneath me, not grounded bone and blood that watered and fertilized your fruit.

We stood and laid in our own blood for too long.

There's no words of wisdom, just pain and hurt, and we tired of that.

So again, tell me why I am here.

They got my kin, and I mean all of them, separated by tribe and handed off into tribulation.

And we've been avoiding the moon as she points us out as we run.

There's no way to not die in vain.

The rustling of fate and feathers and leaves slicing your toes, feet first in a rushing river.

Some will truly fall behind, but not on my time, not on Minty's time.

This is what I'll tell them.

Your eyes still spy a bit of auburn up close, even as they're searching for you.

The dogs hounding your flesh, tearing at you.

How you gonna get by on fear?

Fires will be lit as bright as the eyes of our babies.

And what we going to tell 'em?

When they're wailing notes of afraid, we rock them close and back to sleep, and if their eyes happen to open, when freedom is calling and demanding its respective time, they will have to see an unfortunate event of truth.

A tougher skin wrapped around the ageless trees that swallowed up upon blood and all of its roots.

It's time.

It's time for us to leave here.

It's time for all of us to leave here, to set our spirits loose wildly, to follow the sky and all of its stars, to fight forever, 'til our hands go numb from holding the butt of my gun and my folks folded neatly under my bosom.

I gotta get my people.

I gotta let my people know what's left of all of my people.

Begging for a stitch of freedom.

They are who I will die for.

They and their children, and their folks, and their children, and their children, and them.

I'll die.

[gentle music continues] [wind whistling] [gentle music continues] Dressed in mud, feverishly bound to return, ready to return, but I promise I will return.

[gentle music continues] [water swishing] [water swishing continues]