This Week at Military Park: A Call to Peace Art Exhibition, Domestic Violence Awareness, Author Talks, and More!

 A Call to Peace Art Exhibition 

Taking place 400 years after the first enslaved Africans arrived on U.S. shores in 1619, the exhibition was conceived in response to Newark’s Wars of America monument, installed in 1926 by sculptor Gutzon Borglum, as a way to engage and confront the sculptor’s own racially fraught legacy and the role of public art in the city today. Borglum, famed for creating Mount Rushmore and designing a Confederate Monument in Stone Mountain, Georgia, was also affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan and used granite from Stone Mountain as the pedestal for his sculpture in Newark.

Learn about the complex history of Military Park and the city of Newark from October 3rd – November 11th through an exhibition that features temporary monuments and artworks by Manuel Acevedo, Chakaia Booker, Sonya Clark, and Jamel Shabazz. The opening event features “The Dignity of Knowing What City You’re In”: A Monumental Conversation on Art and Activism with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Co-Curator and New Arts Director Salamishah Tillet, & Newark Museum Director Linda Harrison, moderated by Co-Curator and Monument Lab Artistic Director Paul Farber.

Alongside the artist installations, will be a research engagement lab, staffed by Newark-based artists and educators, where passersby will be invited to contribute their own speculative monument proposals. The collected responses will be added to an open database, posted on a community board at Express Newark, and shared as a report to the city in 2020.

Domestic Violence Awareness Event 

La Casa de Don Pedro’s Domestic Violence Awareness event is returning to Military Park on Thursday, October 3rd. Join La Casa’s Family Violence Prevention Program from 11 AM – 4 PM in the south of the park for the first half of the event. Then please join at the north end of Military Park from 6 PM – 8 PM for a film. For more information, please call 973-483-2703.

Author Talks

Author Talks with Rutgers-Newark MFA is at Military Park this Tuesday for one last time this season! This great Reading Room series features current students and alumni from the Rutgers-Newark MFA program reading their work or some of the work of their favorite authors from 12 PM – 1 PM!

17th Annual Gateway to a Cleaner Newark Citywide Cleanup 

There will be a Citywide Cleanup this Thursday, October 3rd. The clean-up will begin in Lincoln Park on Broad Street at 8:00 AM and will conclude with lunch and the Golden Broom Awards, at 1:00 PM. Expect to be cleaning for about two hours. Clean-up sites will be assigned to you or you can choose your own. If you would like to participate in this event please call Brenda Anderson at, 973-733-6685 or 201-259-2808 or email Andersonb@ci.newark.nj.us

10 FREE Programs This Week

Check out the list below for a full overview of everything happening in the park this week.