A Monument for Shirley Chisholm in Prospect Park
The Brian Lehrer Show
WNYC
4.6 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 21 July 2023
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, the Public Design Commission in New York City approved a plan to build a 32-foot statue in honor of the iconic Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to serve in Congress. Amanda Williams, MacArthur-winning artist, takes us into her process of designing the statue as Laurie Cumbo, Cultural Affairs Commissioner for New York City, speaks to the city's broader plans for new monuments in the future.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the Brian Larosho on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. Talk about a contrast. |
| 0:16.2 | Our next two segments are going to be about Shirley Chisholm and then Barbie. This week, |
| 0:21.8 | the New York City Public Design Commission approved the construction of a new monument in |
| 0:27.0 | honor of Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to serve in Congress in the whole United States. |
| 0:32.3 | Upon completion, the 32-foot tall monument will be housed near the southeast entrance of |
| 0:38.1 | Prospect Park. It will be the first permanent artwork created in honor of any woman in Brooklyn's |
| 0:44.9 | history. With us now is one of the designers of the monument, MacArthur-winning artist Amanda |
| 0:50.5 | Williams, as well as the New York City Cultural Affairs Commissioner Laurie Combo. Amanda, |
| 0:56.1 | welcome, Commissioner Combo. Welcome back to WNYC. Thank you for having started to be here. |
| 1:02.9 | Commissioner, you want to put this in context a little bit first. There's been a whole rethink |
| 1:08.2 | of the monuments in New York City in recent years, right? Monuments that should be taken down, |
| 1:13.8 | monuments that should be designed because there are so many gaps like with women at all, |
| 1:21.6 | or black women at all. So give us the context of this because a process started a few years ago, |
| 1:28.0 | right? I'm very excited to be the Commissioner at this particular time in Herstory. We are |
| 1:35.6 | recognizing the under-representation of women in design, in architecture, in public art projects, |
| 1:42.8 | and in representation, and we set forth in this administration realizing and making good on the |
| 1:50.6 | promise of the previous administration to have representation of women throughout New York City. |
| 1:56.9 | And this is one of these incredible projects that's going to do just that. It's so important for |
| 2:02.9 | particularly young people. It's important for them to see what they can be because if they don't |
| 2:08.3 | see representations of themselves, then they are not going to have the ability to aspire to achieve |
| 2:15.1 | really great heights. And Shirley Chisholm is certainly an icon in Brooklyn, New York, |
| 2:20.9 | but also globally. And so we're really excited about this, and we're really excited about |
... |
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