New signs along Flatbush Avenue honor Brooklyn’s African heritage
Photo courtesy of the NYC Department of Transportation on Flickr
New cultural signs honoring Brooklyn’s rich African heritage have been installed along Flatbush Avenue. The signs mark the beginning of the Black History + Heritage Corridors project, which connects the Lefferts Historic House and the Flatbush African Burial Ground and celebrates the history and culture of Brooklynites of African descent.
This project, a partnership between GrowHouse NYC and Creative Urban Alchemy, is part of The Local Center, an initiative by Urban Design Forum and the Association for Neighborhood Housing and Development. The collaboration builds on a two-year effort by GrowHouse to raise awareness of the Flatbush African Burial Ground through art, technology, community organizing, and history walks.
The artwork displayed on these signs was selected through a citywide youth design competition held this past winter. The winning artists, Astra Baker, Jojo Buchmann, and Lorraine Colbert, each received $1,000 for their creative contributions.
Their designs have been printed on aluminum signs in collaboration with the city’s Department of Transportation and installed along Flatbush Avenue, establishing a roughly mile-long “Black History + Heritage Corridor” that links two significant sites in Black history: the Lefferts Historic House and the Flatbush African Burial Ground.
Beyond preservation, the Corridor aims to create a cultural and economic ecosystem that connects historic Black sites, such as the Burial Ground and Weeksville Heritage Society, to Black-owned businesses.
It also aims to foster resilience, healing, and inspiration, empowering the community to “forge collective futures” that embody the essence of Black people throughout the diaspora and across generations.
“As more African burial grounds are discovered throughout the city, state, and country, these spaces become important reminders of our past AND the potential for our shared future. We’re at a time in our country where certain people are afraid of our history because it holds pain, trauma, and ultimately accountability,” Shanna Sabio, co-founder of GrowHouse NYC, said in a statement.
“Through initiatives like this one, we can build our emotional resilience and see that the only way forward is to honestly review what’s happened before so we don’t make the same mistakes. That is the true power of art – creating sweetness and beauty for the medicine of history and its lessons to be delivered.”
At the end of the year, a toolkit will be published to allow community members to create similar projects in other neighborhoods.
RELATED:
