{"id":10576,"date":"2019-03-06T07:58:16","date_gmt":"2019-03-06T12:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=10576"},"modified":"2019-03-06T07:58:16","modified_gmt":"2019-03-06T12:58:16","slug":"king-memorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2019\/03\/06\/king-memorial\/","title":{"rendered":"Monumental Hugging Arms Selected As Memorial To MLK On Boston Common"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Embrace\u201d\u2014a pair of monumental hugging arms\u2014has been selected to become a memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King on Boston Common as soon as next year. The design by Brooklyn artist Hank Willis Thomas <\/a>and MASS Design Group was inspired by images of the Kings hugging and walking arm in arm at the frontlines of protests.<\/p>\n

\u201cMartin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King are monumental examples of the capacity of love to shape society,\u201d Thomas said in a press release. \u201cI can only hope \u2018The Embrace\u2019 can be a reminder and a call to action to each of us to never forget what they\u2019ve taught us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there a more radical act of justice than love?\u201d said Michael Murphy, executive director of MASS Design Group, a non-profit architecture firm with addresses in Boston, Kigali and Poughkeepsie, New York. \u201cThe choice to love your neighbor, to love someone that is not yourself, to go into a community and act is the foundational seed of social justice. To us, there was no better way to honor the Kings\u2019 legacy and advance collective action.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Design<\/a>
Design for \u201cThe Embrace\u201d by Hank Willis Thomas and MASS Design Group for Boston Common. (Courtesy King Boston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The $3 million to $4 million project is being developed by King Boston<\/a>, a private non-profit aiming to create the memorial as well as a King Center for Economic Justice in Roxbury and programs about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. It\u2019s co-chaired by Paul English, co-founder of the online travel service Lola, as well as of Kayak, GetHuman and Boston Light Software, and, Rev. Liz Walker, senior pastor of Roxbury Presbyterian Church.<\/p>\n

Thomas\u2014son of photographer, historian, and MacArthur “genius” grant winner Deborah Willis<\/a>\u2014is known for making art that sharply and provocatively address race, politics and consumer culture in America. You can find his public sculpture “All Power to All People,”<\/a> an 8-foot-tall hair pick with a Black Power fist at the top, in Philadelphia. His art has also looked at the intersection of race and sports and explored how contemporary marketing branding\u2019s echoes the literal branding of enslaved peoples.<\/p>\n

\"Design<\/a>
Design for \u201cThe Embrace\u201d by Hank Willis Thomas and MASS Design Group for Boston Common. (Courtesy King Boston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Plans call for \u201cThe Embrace\u201d to be situated in Boston Common, near the Parkman Bandstand and Treemont Street, to create two gathering spaces\u2014one facing the State House and the other facing toward bandstand, where Dr. King addressed the Common in April 1965. The sculpture\u2019s reflective, coppery surface and the way designs suggest it will arch over visitors recall some of the best features of Anish Kapoor\u2019s \u201cCloud Gate\u201d (aka \u201cThe Bean\u201d) in downtown Chicago, which has become a tremendous success in that community since it debuted in 2006.<\/p>\n

\"Design<\/a>
Design for \u201cThe Embrace\u201d by Hank Willis Thomas and MASS Design Group for Boston Common. (Courtesy King Boston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201c\u2019The Embrace\u2019 captured the spirit of love and community that was so central to the Kings’ work, and that we want to radiate across the City from the Boston Common,\u201d Barry Gaither, director of Boston\u2019s Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, who co-chaired the King Boston Art Committee, said in a prepared statement.<\/p>\n

The public art competition attracted high-profile, international submissions\u2014including from Britain\u2019s Yinka Shonibare and American-born, European-based Barbara Chase-Riboud. \u201cThe Embrace\u201d was chosen from 126 applications, organizers say. King Boston aims to finish the memorial in 2020 with a \u201ctarget budget\u201d of $3 million to $4 million. Designs must still be reviewed by city agencies.<\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"Design<\/a>
Design for \u201cThe Embrace\u201d by Hank Willis Thomas and MASS Design Group for Boston Common. (Courtesy King Boston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Design<\/a>
Design for \u201cThe Embrace\u201d by Hank Willis Thomas and MASS Design Group for Boston Common. (Courtesy King Boston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Design<\/a>
Design for \u201cThe Embrace\u201d by Hank Willis Thomas and MASS Design Group for Boston Common. (Courtesy King Boston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Embrace\u201d\u2014a pair of monumental hugging arms\u2014has been selected to become a memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King on Boston Common as soon as next year. The design by Brooklyn artist Hank Willis Thomas and MASS Design Group was inspired by images of the Kings hugging and walking arm in arm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,105],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10576"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10588,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10576\/revisions\/10588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}