Vinnie Bagwell

Victory Over Sims and the Enslaved Africans’ Rain Garden are two of Vinnie Bagwell’s forthcoming public sculpture projects honoring enslaved Africans in New York. Victory, a 16 ft. bronze statue of angel with a medical staff, is slated for installation on the perimeter of Central Park at the location of the now-removed statue of J. Marion Sims, a gynecologist who experimented on enslaved women. Five life-size figurative statues comprise the work for Enslaved Africans’ Rain Garden, an urban-heritage park located along the Hudson River in downtown Yonkers. These bronze statues represent universal identities of enslaved Africans who lived at Phillips Manor Hall in Yonkers. Through her her use of naturalism, Bagwell brings to light the histories of individuals, she named I’Satta, Themba the Boatman, Bibi, Sola and Olumide, whose contributions are usually left out of the American narrative. For both Victory and EARG, Bagwell collaborates with the landscape architect Bryce Turner, AIA, whose site renderings are featured below.