Triumph of the Human Spirit: The 50-foot granite monument in Manhattan

Foley Square, in the heart of New York City, is home to Lorenzo Pace’s Triumph of the Human Spirit, a 50-foot-high black granite sculpture. The 300-short-ton monument was commissioned by the New York City Government’s Percent for Art program following the 1991 discovery of a Colonial-era African Burial Ground. The artwork is derived from the female antelope Chiwara forms of Bambaran art.

The sculpture is sited near the rediscovered African Burial Ground, and its support structure alludes to the slave trade's Middle Passage. The work was commissioned for $750,000, but took 8 years to complete, including two rejections. It was dedicated on Columbus Day, October 12, 2000 - a date chosen to synchronize the availability of Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

Pace felt Columbus Day was an inappropriate date to celebrate a work that honors the slaves, immigrants, and Indians who were wronged in the nation's formative years. He and other African-Americans boycotted the unveiling because of the date. Today, the sculpture has received a lot of notoriety as a gathering place for demonstrations and rallies.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons