SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Monumental Reckoning, the groundbreaking temporary art installation that stood at Golden Gate Park’s Music Concourse for more than two years before coming down earlier this year, returned to the park for a special Juneteenth celebration, San Francisco Recreation and Park Department officials announced today.

In honor of the Juneteenth holiday, SF Rec and Park partnered with Bay Area artists Dana King and Mark Allan Davis to bring back the installation for a special one-day live exhibit featuring 50 Black women, both cis and trans, as well as Black nonbinary people. The celebration also included lively musical performances.

During the event, the 50 participants stood in unison around the plinth where a statue of Francis Key Scott once stood. Participants and the audience then took part in a moment of silence, honoring the struggle for liberation endured by Black people across the diaspora.

“For more than two years, Monumental Reckoning served as a reminder to the millions of people who visit the park about a buried but significant chapter of American history,” SF Rec and Park General Manager Phil Ginsburg said. “I’m happy to see this powerful exhibit return and shine light on Black history, allowing park visitors to once again reflect on the legacy of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans to our culture.”

"Commemorating Juneteenth in San Francisco is an opportunity to reflect on my Texan roots and the pursuit of justice so many came looking for out west. I am so grateful to see that today, as Monumental Reckoning returns to Golden Gate Park," said Sheryl Davis, Executive Director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. "The power of Dana King's artistry in this installation recognizes and honors resilience. Today is a moment, amid the celebration of freedom that marks Juneteenth, to also acknowledge the struggle borne by our ancestors—especially Black women, who lift up so much for the greater good—and the work that continues to address harm and create paths toward justice and healing."

Monumental Reckoning was first installed in the park’s Music Concourse in June 2021—one day after President Joe Biden signed a resolution establishing June 19 as Juneteenth National Independence Day, a U.S. holiday commemorating the end of slavery. The installation was a partnership between SF Rec and Park, the nonprofit organization Illuminate, and King.

The installation consisted of 350 metal sculptures representing the first group of enslaved Africans who were brought against their will to the colonies in 1619. The sculptures, which stood 4-feet high, were placed surrounding the plinth of the former Francis Scott Key statue. Protestors toppled the statue the year prior, on Juneteenth of 2020. Key, who wrote the lyrics to the Star-Spangled Banner, was a slave owner and an opponent to the abolition movement.

For this year’s Juneteenth holiday, King and Mark Allan Davis, who is also an associate professor of Black Studies at San Francisco State University, came to SF Rec and Park with the idea of bringing back a revamped, live version of the installation.

“It’s important for me as an artist to continue the mission of Monumental Reckoning, which is to tell the whole truth of American history, 360 degrees of it,” King said. “The ship that started the business of slavery left West Africa with 350 people. It arrived in America with 20 people. Our intention today was to honor those 350 people, including the 20 individuals who started all our families. We want our ancestors to know that we are grateful for their sacrifices and continue to stand on their behalf.”

“As an Artivist (activist, artist, and scholar) as well as a fourth-generation free descendant of enslaved persons, I feel Monumental Reckoning exemplifies the reconciling that every Black American must do, consciously or not. We are free to some extent as we are also responsible to always remember how finite our freedom is,” Mark Allan Davis said. “This Juneteenth we stand in as future ancestors and are creating a collective memory to eternally own and share communally.”

When Monumental Reckoning was initially installed in the park in 2021, Illuminate installed a companion piece, the words “Lift Every Voice,” atop the historic Spreckels Temple of Music, also known as the Golden Gate Bandshell. The phrase is taken from the historic hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” written by civil rights advocate James Weldon Johnson. The song was dubbed the Black National Anthem by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1919.

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