Commissioned by the US General Services Administration's Art in Architecture Program.Through a series of overlapping silkscreen images, Arai draws the viewer`s attention to relevant activities, events, and
symbols pertinent to the 18th and early 19th century. There are
images from the 1600s-1827; however, these images are not
in chronological order.
The main image in the mural is of a mountain, flanked by two pillars. The mountain, as a symbol of land, appears as a sacred site and a place of spiritual truth. The image of the mountain rising from
the water can also refer to the history of New York as a thriving harbor, as well as one of the major
centers of the British slave trade in America. The pillars, through which the mountain is viewed,
represent the past and present. The Middle Passage and the watery holocaust of the Atlantic Ocean
are represented in the pillar on the mural`s right. The pillar on the left contains a sky line of New
York. Below the skyline is a foundation of bricks which contain the names of the first eleven Africans
brought to America through the Dutch slave trade. These pillars can be seen as the foundation for
the city of New York`s success. Also seen in the mural are: figures representing the different types of
labor Africans endured, the African Free School, Freedom`s Journal, Mother A.M.E. Zion church, and
Frances Tavern. At the center of the mural is a reproduction of an 18th century map of the Burial
Ground. Above the map, artifacts unearthed at the burial site-buttons, coins, shroud pins, and beadsbecome a tangible connection to the past; and the talismans for a renewed vision of the future.
