A Monumental Undertaking: Hackley Arts Teacher Honors Mamaroneck’s Enslaved Population With Public Arts Project

 

Wanting to do her part to recognize the lives of the more than 200 Africans who were enslaved in Mamaroneck from 1661 to 1817, Ms. Coble partnered with fellow ceramics artist Sana Musasama — who she knows from graduate school and the Clay Arts Center — on a proposal for a public monument. “We called it ‘Unearthed’ because we felt like this was new information that was coming to light,” Ms. Coble said. “We wanted to use clay because we’re both clay artists and just the feeling that it’s coming from the Earth and we could sculpt the images and have fragments of clay embedded in a wall that tell the story and have an emotional resonance.” Rounding out the team working on the monument are coordinator Judith Weber and architects Mariví Perdomo Caba and Jorge L. Ventura Ovalles. 

“Unearthed: A Remembrance” was commissioned by the Mamaroneck Town Board and REALM (Recognizing Enslaved Africans of Larchmont-Mamaroneck), a group of local residents who became aware of the community’s ties to slavery and whose mission is “to honor the history, humanity and contributions of the enslaved people whose involuntary labor helped build our community.” Much of the information was compiled by historian and John Jay College professor Ned Benton for the Northeast Slavery Records Index and published between 2005 and 2012 in articles he wrote for the Larchmont Gazette and on the Larchmont Historical Society website.

The monument, which will be installed on the hill in front of the Mamaroneck Town Center, is a curved wall. “There is dignity, sorrow and determination reflected in the figures toiling on one side and fleeing to freedom on the other. In addition to the figures, there will be numerous symbolic representations of the enslavement experience,” notes REALM’s website.

For the scenes she is creating, Ms. Coble drew inspiration from the stories of enslaved peoples. “There’s one account that’s written by the Mott family, who were a Quaker family. The Quakers were the first to free their enslaved people, so one of the grandsons wrote this extensive story about Billy and Jenny, two enslaved people who had nine kids. And it’s a very loving description of the stories they told him. … Billy made gourd banjos and was well known for that. We know he smoked a pipe and he liked to fish in the harbor. We have these wonderful stories of him.”

Ms. Coble also noted that she is bringing her work and what she has learned through the process to the Hilltop. “We’re using this plastilina clay making figures, which is what I’m using in the studio, so it’s really exciting to teach from what I’m doing,” Ms. Coble noted of her ceramics classes at Hackley. “And actually, one of my students, Sofia DeSpirito ’24 — she’s been my ceramics student for years — I hired her to help me a few weeks ago,” Ms. Coble noted. “She was great and very helpful!”

Recently, Ms. Coble appeared on a podcast to share about her work on the monument. “A really large part of our project was not only building the wall and telling the stories, but doing community conversations and outreach,” she noted. “So far, people have been very receptive and interested. Most people we talked to sounded surprised. We didn’t know our history this way.”

Ms. Coble is also taking part in a series of three workshops with local families at the Mamaroneck Library. “I’m having an exhibit at the library that’s kind of a peek behind the scenes to show the work that Sana and I have been doing,” she noted. The first of these workshops takes place on Saturday, Oct. 5. Future workshops, “Diorama — Tell Your Story of the Enslaved People” and “Clay — Making Hands That Shaped Our Town,”  will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. on Oct. 26 and Nov. 23, respectively.

“Hackley has been so helpful to just keep me learning about the history and to support my education. I’m always taking advantage of faculty development grants to learn my crafts. I spent a lot of time at the Art Students League over the years learning to do figure sculptures, and especially the casting right now, it’s been helpful that I’ve done that. So, I’m very appreciative of all that — it’s been great.”