More than four years after her proposal, a proposed public monument honoring the late Congresswoman Shirley Chisolm has been given the go-ahead for installation in New York City.
Designed by artists Amanda Williams and Olalekan B. Jeyifous, the 32-foot-tall sculpture depicts Chisolm’s face in yellow and green latticework. The design was unanimously approved by the New York Public Design Commission, the agency that oversees the city’s public art collection, at a July 17 meeting, according to the New York Times. It is now to be installed near the southeast entrance to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.
A symbol of strength for women and people of color, Chisolm became the first black woman to serve in Congress in 1968. Four years later, she added another achievement to her list: she became the first black woman to run for president.
A monument in Chisholm has been in the works for years. Announced in 2018, it was one of the first projects pledged by She Built NYC, an initiative founded by the Department of Cultural Affairs to address the lack of public monuments honoring women. At the time, only five New York statues depicted actual women. By comparison, nearly 150 men commemorated.
“Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm’s legacy of leadership and activism paved the way for thousands of women to seek public office,” former New York First Lady Chirlane McCray, who led She Built NYC, said when the memorial plan was revealed in 2018. “She is exactly the kind of woman in New York whose contributions should be honored with representation in our public spaces.”
Williams and Jeyifous’ design, submitted through an open call, was chosen in 2019. In silhouette, the sculpture recalls the dome of the United States Capitol building. It also features inlaid forms of plants native to Barbados, where Chisholm lived briefly as a child.
“Our project celebrates the legacy of Shirley Chisholm as a public servant who ‘left the door open’ to make way for others to follow her path to fairness and a place in our country’s political landscape”, Williams and Jeyifous said of their proposal. “We have designed a monument in which his iconic face can be instantly recognizable while also depicting the power, beauty and dimensionality of his contributions to our democracy.”
The monument was originally slated for completion in 2020, but the pandemic, followed by a change in mayoral administrations, has delayed the project and others like it, including planned monuments for civil rights icon Elizabeth Jennings Graham, singer Billie Holiday and transgender activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. Some wondered if these statues would be erected at all.
Laurie Cumbo, commissioner for cultural affairs under current mayor Eric Adams, allayed those fears. “This administration is committed to working to tell a fuller story surrounding the pioneering women who shaped our city, and we are ready to revive more of these projects,” she told the New York Times.
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