HALO Project Artist Immanuel Oni and M’Finda Kalunga Garden

Project HALO was a collaboration between Immanuel Oni, FABnyc, the M’Finda Kalunga Garden, Buro Happold, Beam Center and NYC Parks. Image: Elyse Mertz.

HALO adds its beauty and powerful visuals and literal “light” to the beauty of M’Finda Kalunga Community Garden.

“Artist Immanuel Oni’s HALO is a public art installation memorializing the now paved over Chrystie Street African Burial Ground. Located on the fence of the M’Finda Kalunga Garden in Sara Roosevelt Park”

The work builds on the “enduring presence of Black communities in the Lower East Side.” And on the decades work of the Sara Roosevelt Park Community Coalition and M’Finda Kalunga Garden‘s Debra Jeffreys-Glass who spearheaded the re-creation of its Juneteenth Celebrations – over many years (documented on this website).

Prior to that? The invaluable work of Emilyn L. Brown Researcher and Historian without whom this history might have been lost.

More details: (well worth a look!): Project Halo Link to video

From Sara Roosevelt Park Community Coalition:

Congratulations all.

Thank you:

Oni, beautiful, reverential artwork honoring the lives of those who created this burial ground with and for their community in the Chrystie Street Burial Ground. Those discs of names and dates were striking.

Ryan, for your imagination and your persistent spearheading, guidance and hard work that made this possible (to FABnyc staff too!).

Debra, for your years of work organizing and building on Juneteenth here – carrying that torch from MKG/SRPCC’s earliest days.

Bob Humber (and the early ones: Bette, Kate, Jim, Lee and more), for providing all of us with the ground we stand on (literally).

Buro Happold, John and team: fabricators, designers, all the hands of this work. And thank you for your graciousness and partnership in the work of all the volunteers of the M’Finda Gardeners and the Coalition.

For NYC Parks for knowing this mattered.

For all who funded and made this possible.

From conception to execution this is a beautiful gift to this City, this Park, this community and the public. This lends it’s weight to restoring the reality of Black history here – especially in these times.

We are utterly grateful.

More information and links:

HALO is a commissioned art installation aimed at illuminating the history of New York City’s Black community. The Chrystie Street African Burial Ground, granted to the African Society in 1795, served as a burial site for New York’s Black community until 1853, when most of the estimated 5,000 remains were moved to Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn. In 2006, remains believed to be from this burial ground were discovered during the construction of the new museum.

Meet the artist:
IMMANUEL ONI is a first-generation Nigerian-American artist and space doula living between New York City and hometown Houston, TX. He believes design is not about what he is making, but who he is making it for. More on Immanuel Oni here.

Buro Happold ‘s Share Our Skills program, has a commitment to community engagement and impactful design.

“The collaborative efforts of John, Maya, and Galen …emphasize the importance of hands-on involvement and innovative solutions that resonate with the community.”