Shadow of a Face - Harriet Tubman Monument

Harriet Tubman Square Park
Newark, New Jersey

Studio Cooke John
Designer/Artist Nina Cooke John

“Shadow of a Face” is the newly installed monument to Harriet Tubman in Newark, NJ to honor her extraordinary life, and pay homage to Harriet Tubman’s life and the city’s role in facilitating the Underground Railroad. The monument, designed by artist and architect Nina Cooke John, replaces a Christopher Columbus statue in a prominent urban park, renamed Harriet Tubman Square. Ms. Cooke John’s monument portrays Harriet Tubman from two perspectives: as a larger-than-life figure rising over two stories tall and at eye level, where the relief of her face is approachable and earthly.  Text is cut into the curving steel learning wall that wraps around the statue giving viewers a timeline of Tubman’s life and a history of Newark’ Black Liberation movement.  Embedded into this memorial is a soundscape that provides an audio narrative by Newark's own Queen Latifah of Harriet’s life journey.  A wall is adorned with mosaics made by community members, giving them a permanent place in this memorial.

The lighting design for this monument was developed through a design process that included intensive modeling, fabrication, and mock-ups to illuminate all of the critical elements.  The lighting design is a balanced composition using a range of techniques.  From the ingrade uplights washing a curved wall with engraved critical dates from Harriet's life, a ribbon of light integrated into the steel figurative structure, a carefully designed wall grazing/downlights integrated into the curved corten wall that highlights the story of Harriet Tubman's journey and connection to the community of Newark, New Jersey. A softly lit stone profile of Harriet invites the community to interact and touch her face. Finally, tucked into the top of the standing structure are three randomly programmed 4000K spotlights that shine through the structural ribbons to cast cooler shifting "moonlight" shadows mimicking her journey in the wilderness.  As you walk around the monument, you subtly experience the movement of the shifting cooler shadows while listening to Newark's own Queen Latifah and others narrate stories about Tubman and the city’s history of Black liberation.

Design for Freedom Pilot Project