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When slavery is taught in an educational setting, perspectives are often erased or overlooked. Marcus Brown, a New Orleans-based artist with enslaved African ancestors, aims to share the stories of enslaved people with four free Augmented Reality (AR) exhibitions across New York City opening July 25 and running through July 2026.
As part of the city's Arts in the Park initiative, Brown's "Slavery Trails" takes historical sites that are tied to slavery and crafts them into digital memorials using sculpture and AR that visitors may access via mobile device. Manhattan will house two exhibitions while Brooklyn and Queens will showcase one; "merging technology, music and history into public memory spaces that honor the enslaved and challenge contemporary narratives," according to a press release about the exhibition.
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Manhattan's two sculptures are titled "The Slave Market: Wall Street" and "New York Slave Conspiracy of 1741. Brooklyn and Queens work together to tell "American Gold III" and "American Gold IV," respectively.
In Manhattan, "The Slave Market: Wall Street" makes visible the enslaved Africans and Native Americans who were bought and sold during the 1711 New York slave market. The second installation in Manhattan, titled "New York Slave Conspiracy of 1741," brings attention to the mass hysteria in response to mysterious fires which led to the execution and exile of primarily Black and enslaved New Yorkers. Both are located in City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan.
In Brooklyn and Queens, "American Gold III & IV" debut golden sculptures of enslaved people overseas on slave ships in the Middle Passage. The Brooklyn artwork is located at Bush Terminal Park; in Queens, find the artwork at Astoria Park.
"My mission is to create artworks that educate the public on important issues while crossing media and societal boundaries," Brown said on his website. "As an artist with enslaved African ancestors, I feel a responsibility to use my work to tell their stories. To create new works that empower and bring everyone together. I see my role as an artist as a technical, scholarly, and performative one."
I feel a responsibility to use my work to tell their stories.
Each piece comes equipped with more information available via mobile device and merges site-specific research with AR sculpture and sound. Brown's goal with the works is just a small part of a larger endeavor to create a decentralized memorial to slavery in the United States. His new pieces will help to tell New York City's often overlooked history with slavery.
Slavery Trails is not only AR interactive, but musically interactive as well. These two art forms are combined with deep historical research and produce a participatory memorial which centers the slavery narrative specifically on the enslaved peoples and their efforts at resistance.