“Bear Witness” is held each year during the week of Ann Taylor’s birthday. Ann Taylor was born March 20, 1845, and would have been 179 years old this year. This participatory public art experience is designed to introduce the public to Ann Taylor’s life and journey. Cultural worker and artist, Felicia Johnson, will lead participants through an interactive remembrance art project celebrating ancestral reverence at Ann Taylor’s gravesite. Using found and recycled materials, they will build Ancestor staffs, also known as Egun sticks. Drea the Artist will conduct sound baths along the park trail each hour. Narratives will be collected, on site, by the Houston Public Library’s (HLP) Gregory School that will become a part of the official City of Houston African American History archive. There will be an opportunity to create tree rubbings that will be a part of a visual art piece that will be produced later by Kristi Rangel. Visitors will bear witness to the power of Ann Taylor's legacy through the beauty of nature, art and stories shared.
The Houston Audubon will showcase African American connection to birds (e.g. Kerry James Marshall, Toni Morison, Sankofa, Jacob Lawrence Migration Series, etc.) The Houston Audubon will provide binoculars and nature interpretation along the trail if that is an opportunity.
Thank you to our partners at Gregory School and Houston Parks Department.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS & PARTNERS
Houston Parks & Recreation Department
Nature Heritage Society- Houston
“You will be someone’s ancestor- act accordingly”
—Amir Sulaiman
Photos at E.R. and Ann Taylor Park
Book list created by African American History Research Center, Houston Public Library
Witness Series 2024 Part 2: "Bear Witness" Reading List
Black Women Narratives and Histories
Compiled by Sheena Wilson and Ingrid Grant,
African American History Research Center, Houston Public Library
Black is the body: Stories From My Grandmother's Time, My Mother's Time, And Mine, Emily BernardA Black women's history of the United States, Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole GrossGo Back and Get It: A Memoir of Race, Inheritance, And Intergenerational Healing, Dionne FordGlory In Their Spirit: How Four Black Women Took on The Army During World War II, Sandra M. BolzeniusTwice As Hard: The Stories of Black Women Who Fought To Become Physicians, From The Civil War To The 21st Century, Jasmine BrownHousehold Workers Unite: The Untold Story of African American Women Who Built a Movement, Premilla Nadasen
