Anderson@Large

Keeping Hope Alive on Philadelphia Courthouse Mural

I was on jury duty last week. During breaks, I checked out one of my favorite works of public art. When I first saw the Philadelphia Courthouse Mural in 2016, I nearly passed out. The panoramic mural has more stories about Philadelphia jazz than any source other than my website, All That Philly Jazz.

I was stumped by a previously overlooked image of a saxophonist who is described as “a major player in Philadelphia jazz.” I could not make out the name because the image is small and waist-high.

All That Philly Jazz is crowdsourced. With the advent of generative artificial intelligence (AI), I did not have to turn to the wisdom of the crowd. Instead, I asked my new research assistants, ChatGPT and Google Bard. They identified the saxophonist – Lynn Hope – in mere seconds.

Photography is not allowed in the Juanita Kidd Stout Center for Criminal Justice. When I told the court officer that I was documenting Philadelphia’s jazz history, she said OK but be quick.

Lynn Hope, also known as El Hajj Abdullah Rasheed Ahmad, was a band leader and tenor saxophonist who was popular in the late 1950s and early ‘60s. After converting to Islam, he wore his trademark turban. Hope and his band toured Africa, Europe and the Middle East. In 1950, he had a crossover hit with “Tenderly.”

Hope was the top star at the legendary Show Boat under the ownership of Herb Keller.

Hope faded into obscurity in the late ‘60s. After his jazz heyday, he held a variety of jobs, including cab driver (as noted on the mural). Hope joined the ancestors on February 24, 1993.

Broad, Germantown, Erie Percent For Art Project

Philadelphia is a city of neighborhoods. Legendary trumpeter Lee Morgan grew up on Madison Street in the Nicetown/Tioga neighborhood in North Philly. Lee’s block is a 20-minute walk from the intersection of Broad, Germantown and Erie (BGE).

In conjunction with traffic safety and beautification improvements to the iconic intersection, the Office of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy (OACCE) issued a Call for Artists to compete for a site-specific public artwork. During an information meeting, Rachel Schwartzman, Percent for Art Rebuild Project Manager, shared the goals of the BGE Public Art Project.

In the 1960s Sonny “The Mighty Burner” Hopson held record hops at the Arcade Ballroom, located at Broad and Erie.

Sundays were for teenagers. The record hops were promoted as “wholesome affairs that will help keep youngsters off the streets and out of trouble.”

The Arcade Ballroom was located in a two-story building constructed in 1920. There were retail stores on the ground floor and a dance hall on the second floor. The building is still there.

The finalists competing for the Percent For Art commission have been selected. OACCE invites the public to meet the artists and share their ideas for the BGE project. I plan to attend the community meeting to share this neighborhood history with the artists.

To reserve a spot for the community meeting, go here.

And the winner is…

In March 2022, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney announced plans to give Wesley Wofford, a white artist who has never won a public commission for a Harriet Tubman statue, a $500,000 “direct commission”; in other words, a no-bid commission. In a city that is 40 percent African American, Black artists were not given an opportunity to compete for a public commission for the Black icon.

Black women did what we do and made some noise. In August 2022, the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy (OACCE) announced the City was taking a “new direction” and issued an open Call for Artists. Fifty artists, including Wofford, responded to the call. Wofford didn’t make the cut. The five semifinalists, all of whom are Black, were announced in March 2023.

Mayor Kenney and OACCE will announce the winning artist on October 30, 2023.

Great God Almighty, it’s been a long time coming.

Vote for Harriet Tubman Statue Design

The Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy (OACCE) has unveiled the proposed designs for the statue honoring Harriet Tubman. As I told the Philadelphia Inquirer, it was a needlessly bumpy process to get to this point, but I think Philadelphia can be proud of the visions presented by the five semi-finalists, Vinnie Bagwell, Richard Blake, Tanda Francis, Alvin Pettit and Basil Watson. Their designs reflect the lived experience of being Black in America and the continuing struggle for racial justice.

More than 100 people attended the virtual public design presentation but it’s not too late to have your voice heard. The public is invited to view, rank and comment on the proposed designs. OACCE will share the comments and rankings with the artists who will have an opportunity to revise their design prior to final review by the Advisory Committee.

I won’t rank the designs but I want to comment on the design that captured my imagination, Tanda Francis’ “Together in Freedom.” I was struck by the monumental scale of Harriet Tubman’s face and the potential of the polished panels.

Harriet did not arrive in Philadelphia fully formed. The panels of “Together in Freedom” could breathe life into the places and people who together helped transform Harriet from a thankful self-emancipated woman to the “Moses of Her People.”

Harriet’s Philadelphia story could be told by incorporating historic documents such as William Still’s journal which includes an entry about Harriet’s family, showing places where she lived and worked, and highlighting financiers and agents of the Underground Railroad, including Robert Purvis, Sarah Buchanan and Henrietta Duterte.

The Public Input Survey is open until September 1, 2023 at 11:59pm EST. Click here to view the designs and take the survey.

Harriet Tubman in Public Memory

In 2022, Congress passed the ‘‘Harriet Tubman Bicentennial Commemorative Coin Act’’ which required the Secretary of the Treasury to mint and issue commemorative coins in recognition of the 200th anniversary of Harriet Tubman’s birth. Earlier this month, the United States Mint joined representatives from the Harriet Tubman Home and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center to unveil the designs for the 2024 Harriet Tubman Bicentennial Commemorative Coins.

The designs will be featured on a $5 gold coin, a $1 silver coin and a half-dollar coin. All sales will include a surcharge of $35, $10 and $5, respectively. The surcharges will be paid equally to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and the Harriet Tubman Home “for the purpose of accomplishing and advancing their missions.”

Woodrow Keown Jr., president & COO of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, said:

Harriet Tubman is one of the most revered figures in American history and now she is being rightly enshrined among our nation’s pantheon of heroes. She will soon be indelibly etched into our collective heritage as a triumphant, resilient champion of freedom that reflects the true diversity of those who have contributed so significantly to our nation’s democracy.

In the birthplace of our nation’s democracy, the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy will hold a Public Design Presentation Meeting for Philadelphia’s permanent Harriet Tubman statue. The public is invited to join the virtual meeting during which the five semi-finalist artists will “present their design images, renderings, and/or models and hear them describe their vision for the Harriet Tubman statue.”

Harriet Tubman will be the first statue of a Black female historical figure in the City’s vast public art collection. RSVP here for the Zoom meeting on Thursday, August 3 from 5:30pm to 7:30pm.

Harriet Tubman Statue Update

A year ago, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney planned to award a $500,000 no-bid commission for a permanent Harriet Tubman statue to a white artist, Wesley Wofford, who has never won a public commission for a Tubman statue. After sustained agitation, the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy (OACCE) reversed course and issued an Open Call. Wofford was among the 50 artists who responded to the Open Call. The five semi-finalists were announced on March 31, 2023. Wofford didn’t make the cut. He’s now batting 0 for 24 public commissions for Harriet Tubman statues.

All of the semi-finalists—Vinnie Bagwell, Richard Blake, Tanda Francis, Alvin Pettit and Basil Watson—are Black. The public is invited to attend a virtual public input meeting with the artists.

The Zoom webinar will provide an opportunity for the artists “to hear directly from the public before they create initial design proposals for the Harriet Tubman statue. The winning proposal will become a statue that will be located on the northeast apron of City Hall and the first statue of a Black female historical figure in the City’s public art collection. OACCE encourages all Philadelphians to be a part of this historic public art commission for the City by attending this public meeting and making your voice heard.”

The public input meeting will be held on Monday, April 24, 2023 at 5:30pm ET. RSVP for the Zoom webinar here.

Nana Harriet Tubman Committee Says ‘Enough!’

From Auburn, New York to Ypsilanti, Michigan, the commissioning of a Harriet Tubman statue has been a source of civic pride. In Philadelphia, the city where Harriet first experienced freedom, the public art acquisition process is tainted by white privilege, lies, and fuzzy math. The Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy (OACCE) manipulated survey data to minimize public support for a permanent Harriet Tubman statue. OACCE claimed that only 25% of respondents want a statue of the American icon.

When OACCE was called out by a reporter with the Philadelphia Inquirer, the “full report and report summary were revised on November 22, 2022, clarifying the result for question one.”

The Celebrating the Legacy of Nana Harriet Tubman Committee has had enough of OACCE’s lies and “math not mathing.” During an interview on “Wake Up With WURD” Committee spokesperson Mama Maisha Sullivan-Ongoza said, “We cannot let this level of disrespect and incompetence continue to happen.”

Mama Maisha recounted that OACCE Director Kelly Lee told her that the City planned to award a no-bid commission to Wesley Wofford “because he’s in the system already. We can expedite it faster because he’s already in our system.” Her response: “Of course he is. White men are always in the system.” In a majority-minority city, two African American women are gatekeepers for white privilege.

These unaccountable bureaucrats want to sign the contract for the Harriet Tubman statue – or random African American figure – while their boss, Mayor Jim Kenney, is still in office. To do so, they have set an arbitrary timeline that would require artists competing for the commission to work like slaves through Christmas, Kwanzaa, Watch Night, New Year’s Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend. By contrast, Lee and Anglin spoon-fed Wofford inside information for months as he prepared his proposal.

Mama Maisha notes the disparate treatment of Black and other underrepresented artists:

Now they got a speedy timeline. They want everything in by January, over the holidays. People busy, people committed to their families. They got stuff to do at the end of the year. So now you got a rushed timeline. You didn’t have a rushed timeline for Wesley Wofford. But now that you’re dealing with people of color and women, you got a rushed timeline.

The Celebrating the Legacy of Nana Harriet Tubman Committee said in a statement:

Enough! OACCE’s misinterpretation of the data and the lack of transparency in their decisions and actions minimize the importance of community engagement in public art acquisition. We demand a moratorium on the current statue commission Open Call until new, competent, transparent, and accountable oversight is created.

Mama Maisha told Attorney Michael Coard

We want a moratorium on this Open Call, and we want Kelly Lee and Marguerite Anglin removed from any oversight. We’re going to the Mayor. We’re going to City Council. And if necessary, we will put boots on the ground in front of the Mayor’s Office. We’re ready to hit the streets.

If you have had enough of the coonery at OACCE, contact Mama Maisha Sullivan-Ongoza at (215) 385-0214 or Dr. Michelle Strongfields at (267) 231-0092; email: [email protected].