With support from the Mellon Foundation, REIMAGINING is working to elevate public awareness of the largely unmarked Enslaved African Burial Ground in Van Cortlandt Park and to develop a community-informed 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.

Led by Van Cortlandt Park Alliance, Design Trust for Public Space, and Immanuel Oni of Liminal sp, the project selected three teams from a citywide Design Ideas Competition, following a series of public programs and events throughout the summer and fall of 2025 to engage and survey park neighbors and visitors about the recently uncovered history and build momentum for an eventual memorial. 

The three teams, Rodney Leon/ Leon Pinkster Azalea Collaborative, Ujijji Davis Williams/ JIMA studio, and Sunsum Collective developed design concepts while serving as stewards of dialogue, land, memory, and future-making, presenting their ideas and framework to advance the project toward realization during the 2026 Juneteenth celebration in Van Cortlandt Park. 

Meet the teams and explore their designs: 

Leon "Pinkster Azalea Collaborative" is a collaboration between Rodney Leon, Elgin Cleckley (_mpathic design), and Creative Urban Alchemy established for the Reimagining of Van Cortlandt Park's Enslaved African Burial Ground. The Collaborative's founder Rodney Leon, is the 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. Mr. Leon is also the Architect and Designer of the United Nations Permanent Memorial to the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. His practice Rodney Leon Architect has a unique expertise focusing on the design of sacred, cultural and public spaces over the last 30 years.  Ifeoma Ebo: Nigerian-American, Brooklyn-based public artist, educator at the Spitzer School of Architecture at City College and Principal of Creative Urban Alchemy (CUA) - an award-winning design studio working at the intersection of art, architecture, urban design & planning. With a career spanning two decades, she is renowned for her transformative work in urban landscapes, with a keen focus on equity and design excellence. She has significantly impacted urban design and development projects, partnering with prestigious institutions like the United Nations, FIFA, and the NYC Mayor's Office. She is joined by Ximena Diaz Velasco, a Community Designer at CUA trained in landscape architecture and international development. Elgin Cleckley is an award-winning Architect, Civic designer, and Associate Professor at the University of Virginia, where he leads the internationally recognized _mpathic design initiative, pedagogy, and design practice. He has collaborated on major civic and cultural projects across North America over three decades and helped realize the groundbreaking Weston Family Innovation Centre at the Ontario Science Centre (Toronto). Current design projects include Brookes (Revisited) installation at the Beck Center in Knoxville (Tennessee), Royal Museum Greenwich (UK), and the Charles Wright African American Museum (Detroit), and a public space at Kindlewood (Charlottesville).

JIMA is 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 is 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.

The project aims to build momentum for and inform a future Enslaved African Burial Ground that can be destination in Van Cortlandt Park honoring the memories of those who shaped the land, as well as provide a place for deep reflection, meaningful education, collective healing, and vibrant cultural opportunities for all. This project’s process invites a citywide conversation on memory and interconnection for African Burial Ground sites across New York.