Boston Women’s Memorial Resounds with Past and Present Voices

Boston Women’s Heritage Trail (BWHT) alerted me to a resonant event, Women and the Fourth at the Boston Women’s Memorial on Commonwealth Avenue. Joining Meredith Bergmann’s sculptures of Phillis Wheatley, Abigail Adams, and Lucy Stone, Executive Director Dr. Alexandria Russell read aloud from Frederick Douglass’s powerful speech, What To the Slave Is the Fourth of July?, 1852.

Everyone attending had a ten-page copy to read along and reference later, as I am doing now. (Each seat also included water, a snack, and folding fan for dealing with the summer heat.)

“Installed in 2003, the Boston Women’s Memorial represents three literary women: presidential advisor and correspondent Abigail Adams, suffragist and editor Lucy Stone, and the first African American published poet Phillis Wheatley. The bronze sculpture by New York artist Meredith Bergmann takes the women down off their pedestals so that they can use the pedestals for their work.” (quote from Boston Women’s Memorial, The Boston Women’s Heritage Trail)

The reading led to lively discussions of how Douglass’s speech related to women’s history and to current events also!

Small tables provided a wealth of BWHT resources, including Talking Statues link to hear spoken words of Adams, Stone and Wheatley.

“Meredith Bergmann is a sculptor who for over 45 years has been making work that deals with complex themes in an accessible, beautiful and stimulating way. She works both on public monuments and on a private scale. She works for social justice and historical redress through her public art, and seeks out public commissions that explore issues of history, race, human rights and disabilities, as well as the power of poetry and music.” (quote from BWHT: Bosotn Women’s Memorial )