13. Kenkeleba House Garden
The Kenkeleba House on the Lower East Side, temporarily closed, features a small sculpture garden which can be viewed from East 3rd Street. The house is an art gallery that celebrates the cultural legacy of African American artists and artists of color who are often overlooked. The house was founded in 1974 by Joe Overstreet, Corrine Jennings and Samuel C. Floyd to support African-American culture, and today the sculpture garden features many works by minority artists.
Among the garden’s sculptures are Uzikee’s Bobo, The Flying Man, which uses steel and stained glass to depict an arm-less figure with a crescent shaped head. Artis Lane’s bronze work Amistad depicts a standing naked man to honor the slave revolt of the Mende people on the ship La Amistad. Artist Linus Coraggio has a number of works in the garden including his Bomb, which shows a torpedo-like rusted metal object suspended by a helical structure, The Battleship, and Untitled Motorcycle. Another impactful work by Jeny Polak and Wendy Klemperer is titled Don’t Let Them Kill Mumia, inspired by the works of journalist and Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal who was sentenced to death in 1982 despite many claiming his trial was unfair.