The African Burial Ground in New York City: Memory, Spirituality, and Space

The African Burial Ground in New York City: Memory, Spirituality, and Space is a meticulous survey of historical, aesthetic, and contemporary aspects of the African Burial Ground. Andrea Frohne spent decades within the bureaucracies, art communities, and publics that united to define the historical memory of the cemetery. Her specific labor with the African Burial Ground Office of Public Education and Interpretation (OPEI) was essential to the monograph under review, the first academic title that solely focuses on the site. Throughout her edition, Frohne explores the artistic conceptualizations of space, spirituality, and memory applied to honor the African Burial Ground through what she often acknowledges is an essentialized pan-Africanism that links Akan, Yoruba, and Kongo cosmologies into fresh and respectful patterns of remembrance. What emerges from the book is a visual studies account of democratic processes that have allowed for aesthetic remembrances of the African Burial Ground to flourish as...