Reimagining the Enslaved African Burial Ground at Van Cortlandt Park is hosting a special panel conversation in partnership with Lehman College at CUNY, Campus Honors & Scholar Engagement.

Led by Van Cortlandt Park Alliance, Design Trust for Public Space, and Immanuel Oni of Liminal sp, Reimagining has selected three design teams through its Bronx community-engagement-informed Design Ideas Competition, aiming to generate new visions for a memorial honoring the site. Reimagining is honored to announce the Design Ideas Lab cohort:

• Rodney Leon/ Leon Pinkster Azalea Collaborative: Founder and principal of Rodney Leon Architect PLLC and designer of the African Burial Ground Memorial in New York City, which is the first National Monument in the United States dedicated to the contributions of people of African descent, and the winner of the international competition by the United Nations to design the Permanent Memorial to the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

• Ujijji Davis Williams/ JIMA studio: A landscape architectural design and urban planning studio that collaborates with community groups, organizations, and builders committed to culturally relevant placemaking and strategic implementation. JIMA Studio contributed to a conceptual design investigation interpreting the history of the Forrest Slave Mart, a holding facility for enslaved Africans and African Americans owned and operated by Nathan Bedford Forrest in the midst of Downtown Memphis.

• Sunsum Collective: a collaboration between Wil Jones, founding principal of NYC-based urban practice GROUND3D, architect Deena Darby, cultural preservationist and placemaker Talisha Ward, landscape architectural designer and herbalist Simone Delaney, and urban planner Nolen Scruggs. The interdisciplinary team has expertise in community engagement, historic preservation, landscape design, and public programming. Team members have contributed to community-engaged planning and design efforts related to the Flatbush African Burial Ground, advancing heritage corridor strategies, participatory design processes, ecological design interventions, and collaborative approaches to cultural preservation and public memory.

Join us for a talk and reception at Lehman College to celebrate and meet the design teams, learn more about the hidden histories of the Enslaved African Burial Ground in Van Cortlandt Park, and explore how the design ideas lab will lay down a blueprint vision for a future permanent memorial—one that connects Bronx residents and visitors to the site’s history, acknowledges its painful legacy, and creates space for gathering, education, and healing.

This panel discussion is part of Van Cortlandt Park Alliance’s REIMAGININGinitiative. In partnership with the Design Trust for Public Space and Immanuel Oni, Liminal Sp, VCPA invites the community to reimagine the park’s Enslaved African Burial Ground site as a memorial space that fosters long-term healing and restoration. This project is supported by a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation.

Register for the free event and find directions here.