LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Fugitive slaves once stood on the banks of the Ohio River in Kentucky, gazing across its waters at the Indiana coastline and realizing that freedom was within a mile.
Some jumped in and swam across, some waited patiently, or fearfully, for conductors of the Underground Railroad to signal when it was safe to cross. Some never made it at all.
Their faces, their stories, the outcome of their crossing often unknown, forgotten by history, the outcome of their tales seemingly unimportant, whether they made it safely into the free state of Indiana or if they were captured by slave catchers and returned to their masters in Kentucky and throughout the South.
Today, somewhere beneath the modernized Ohio River riverwalk in downtown Louisville, footprints of the unknown lay buried beneath centuries of industrialized change. But the pain and reality of those footsteps will soon be resurrected by a local art initiative, forcing Kentucky to come face-to-face with a history often ignored.
The (Un)Known Project, started by Hannah Drake, poet, activist and chief creative officer at IDEAS xLab and Josh Miller, co-founder of IDEAS xLab, hope to usher in a new era of social healing in Louisville through storytelling and educationabout Kentucky’s history with slavery.
The project will develop artistic spaces and experiences to foster reflection and reconciliation by telling the stories of formerly enslaved African Americans and other “hidden figures” in Louisville.
The stories will be chronicled through poetry, photography and art-driven experiences along the banks of the Ohio River.
The highlight of The (Un)Known Project will be its Limestone Reconciliation Benches - designed by artist William M. Duffy - overlooking the river, alongside sandblasted “footprints” in the sidewalk coined “A Journey In Our Footprints” that will collectively represent the known and unknown who once overlooked these same waters seeking safe passage.
“It’s to get people thinking about the unknown names,” Drake said. “So, what’s been happening is people have been contacting us saying ‘I found these names that my family owned slaves and these are the names.’”
Part of the focus of project is to collect as many known names as possible from families or companies who insured, leased or hired slaves. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s part of facing the past.
“I don’t want people to feel any shame in it,” Drake said. “It’s OK to release those names… to me it’s like healing on both sides.”
The construction of the benches and footprints will take place somewhere between 3rd Street and 7th Street on the waterfront as a part of Louisville Metro Public Works’ River Road Multi-Modal project, which aims to create a park-like setting underneath Interstate 64 and the Belvedere.
The (Un)Known Project will roll out in phases, Miller said.
The benches are expected to be revealed on Juneteenth this year. The footprints will be installed in the Fall of 2021; future art-driven experiences on the water, which will involve actors and other artists who will convey various stories, will not be ready until sometime in 2022.
The total immersive art experience will premiere between March and April of 2022.
“I think a project like this calls people in,” said Sarah Lindgren, Public Art administrator at Louisville Metro Government. “And because Josh and Hannah’s vision involves so many different components, people can come into it at various comfort levels.”
Aiding in IDEAS xLab’s efforts are partners at the Frazier History Museum, Roots 101 African American Museum, and various departments within the Louisville Metro Government, including the Office of Advanced Planning and Sustainability.
Of those partners, Frazier and Roots 101 will host various exhibits that will feature elements dedicated to the project. One of those elements will chronicle the life of Thornton and Lucie Blackburn - a former fugitive slave couple from Kentucky who escaped to Toronto, Canada in 1834 and were the center of the 1833 Blackburn Riots in Detroit when the couple was imprisoned by slave catchers in a free state and sentenced to be returned to Kentucky.
The Frazier plans to roll out the exhibit in the Spring of 2022 to coincide with the completion of The (Un)Known Project.
“Until we hold up the mirror and take a true look at who we are and where we are, I just don’t think you have that truth in reconciliation,” said Rachel Platt, Frazier Museum’s director of Community Engagement.
In the summer of 2018, Drake found this “mirror” and peered into it.
In downtown Montgomery, Alabama, Drake stood face-to-face with pillars hanging from the canopy over The National Memorial for Peace and Justice - a memorial that recognizes the 4,400-plus Black men, women, and children who were hanged, burned alive, shot, drowned, and beaten to death by white mobs between 1877 and 1950.
As she looked through the pillars trying to find the blocks assigned to the state of Kentucky, she read through the names and kept coming upon the word “Unknown,” marking those who had been wiped away from history without even a name to mark their existence.
This is where the seeds of The (Un)Known Project began. “I was just curious how someone could be unknown,” she said.
Around the same time, Platt wanted Drake to do some work with the Frazier Museum surrounding the story of the Blackburns, which the museum planned to tell in the future.
Those two happenings “co-inspired” The (Un)Known Project and Drake took the initial project idea to Miller. When the city of Louisville announced in the spring of 2019 a public meeting for anyone interested in applying for the “Our Town” grant sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, they seized the opportunity.
Lindgren, with the metro government, said when Miller and Drake came forward with the idea, the city saw it as a perfect opportunity to connect the project to the planning stages of the River Road Corridor Project, a plan to strengthen the scenery on River Road underneath the interstate and provide safer access to the area for bicyclists and pedestrians.
By the following Spring, IDEAS xLab was notified they had received the NEA grant worth $75,000 over a two year period.
The estimated cost of The (Un)Known Project is $400k, Miller said, but through the NEA grant and contributions from the Ford Foundation, Brown-Forman, Republic Bank and other individual donors, the project has amassed $90,000 of its needed $400,000.
Today, the IDEAS xLab is developing a website for the project and will roll out a line of (Un)Known Project merchandise, including t-shirts, hoodies and masks, during the first week of February to help fundraise.
The funding will not only cover the art installations at the waterfront but will pay artists and support partner organizations with items for (Un)Known-themed exhibits. Miller has even mentioned the future development of an augmented reality app that creates a virtual experience surrounding the footsteps, as well.
Drake and Miller’s vision can be labeled “in-progress,” but just as the “unknown” once stood on the banks of the Ohio River dreaming of a future within their reach, they too can see the other side.
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