By Laurie O’Neill — [email protected]
They stop you in your tracks.
A bright blue cabin bearing a heartfelt message to Brister and Fenda Freeman and to a “Mr. Charlestown,” and rustic boxes topped with ornately decorated mannequin busts and inscribed with the names of early Black inhabitants of Walden Woods.
Tiny pottery jugs fashioned into faces, and bird cages bedecked with ribbons and flowers, inspired by Maya Angelou’s memoir “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.”
Walk along the trails in the Brister’s Hill section of Walden Woods, and you’ll come upon these pieces and more, all by Black artists, many of whom live and work in the Boston area. Look up, as some of the art is installed in tree branches.
The woodland installations are the outdoor component of an exhibition titled “Weaving an Address,” meant to honor Brister Freeman and other formerly enslaved residents who established a small settlement not far from Walden Pond.
An indoor exhibit occupies The Umbrella Arts Center’s Allie Kussin Gallery. It features elaborate fiber and woven arts pieces that reflect Black history in America.
Participating artists are Ifé Franklin, Stephen Hamilton, Whitney Harris, Ekua Holmes, Perla Mabel, Marla McLeod, Kimberly Love Radcliffe, and Anthony Peyton Young.
Ancient Concordians
“Weaving an Address” is another of The Umbrella Arts Center’s recent programs that have addressed the semiquincentennial of the American Revolution and the little-known experiences of patriots of color in Concord. It is presented in partnership with The Walden Woods Project, The Robbins House, Concord 250, and Gather, a regional arts symposium.
McLeod, an artist with a studio in Boston and an adjunct professor at MIT, curated the exhibit. She says she hopes it “beckons its viewers to contemplate what future artists will create when considering the town’s history, in say, 2,000 years — when we will all be the ancient Americans of Concord.”
For the first time, the project combines The Umbrella’s popular outdoor Art Ramble installation with an indoor exhibit, according to spokesperson Stewart Ikeda. “It offers a powerful opportunity to reflect on history, identity, labor, and legacy and to center voices that have long been silenced,” he adds.
Brister’s Hill is named for Freeman, who won his freedom by serving in the Revolutionary War. He was the second formerly enslaved person to purchase property in Concord, pooling his money with another formerly enslaved man, Benjamin Edes of Charlestown, in 1785, to buy land in Walden Woods.
‘Alive and vibrant’
The Walden Woods Project owns and stewards Brister’s Hill, which contains a trail called Thoreau’s Path. Henry David Thoreau’s words, cut into granite and cast in bronze, interpret the landscape and illustrate his observations about the forest environment. In “Walden,” Thoreau describes Freeman as a heroic figure.
Franklin, a Roxbury artist, says she created “Slave Cabin” as she does her other work: “To keep the origins, history, and culture of African Americans alive and vibrant.” Near the structure, figures by McLeod pay tribute to early inhabitants of the area.
Also along the trail is Harris’ “The Prospector,” a large carved blue head that rests in a clearing, “with half the face protruding sideways from the ground as if emerging — or being uncovered — from the earth,” she says.
‘An offering to my ancestors’
Facing visitors walking into the Umbrella’s main gallery is a fabric piece titled “Morir Soñando” (“to die dreaming”), in which Mabel incorporates golden elements and delicate peacock feathers. “Each installation I create is a prayer, a labor of love, and an offering to my ancestors and to those I hold dear,” she says.
The Declaration of Independence is prominent in McLeod’s “Self-Portrait,” a mannequin, wood, textile, and bead figure. The piece is characteristic of the artist’s work, which she says “highlights how historical events influence individual lives on a personal level.”
Hamilton’s piece, “Caul-born,” reflects the artist’s training in West African art forms, including weaving and dyeing, which he treats as “ritualized acts of reclamation,” he says.
Hamilton is working on his doctorate in African Studies and African History at Harvard.
Commenting on the piece, he cites a passage from Toni Morrison’s “Song of Solomon.” In the novel, a character says of a baby that his caul — a piece of membrane that in rare cases can cover a newborn’s head and face — should be dried and made into a tea to drink, or the child will see ghosts.
The Brister’s Hill art installation will remain through October 7, while the gallery exhibit runs through June 14. The Umbrella is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week. Entrances to the outdoor exhibit are on Walden Street. For more info, visit theumbrellaarts.org.
