Connecting the Future and the Past Through Sculptures

If the public sculptures we visited were pins on a digital map they would be a dive into culture infused with history. These sculpture could all be connected through history and a collaborative commemoration connecting both the present and the past. The sculptures that caught my eyes were Michael Alfano's Beacon and the Henry Ward Beecher statue by Gutzon Borglum (1914). This goes back to history and these sculptures being connected from the past to the present. If these two pieces were juxtaposed on a map it could tell a story of advancement in civil rights through testament of time. With Beecher's statue commemorating a prolific profile in Abolitionism and Alfano's Beacon inspired by Martin Luther King Jr's quote "Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." They reinforce the treatment of people of color throughout history so that we may not forget their hardships. Connected these sculptures actually map out a timeline in advancements to equality from Beecher's time of ending slavery to M.L.K Jr.'s time of slavery being no more, but inequality being persistent. To finally present day of the light M.L.K Jr. spoke of in his quote starting to be reality. The torch also being a child's face you could connect it to M.L.K's vision he had perhaps for the children of the future generations. All in all, these sculptures could tell us that Brooklyn together remembers and values the history and culture. That we may never forget the terrible past, but also commemorate those who imposed the old ways to usher in a new era where everyone could be treated as equals.