Germantown Potter’s Field Memorial Proposal, 2024

Germantown Potter’s Field Memorial, a segregated cemetery, was deemed the resting place for all “Strangers, Negroes, and Mulattoes”. It was established in 1755 and burials continued until 1916. A historic designation was made a few years ago, with a marker installed. The Germantown Potters Field has been the subject of much controversy in the past. Most recently, the Philadelphia Housing Authority built housing around the known perimeter of the cemetery, leaving a nearly one-acre field in the center where the potter’s field existed, empty.

I have proposed the construction of a small memorial park within the fenced area—a serene and green place for residents to look out on, and a safe place for neighborhood kids to play. I will work with the community, the city and a local landscape architect to design this memorial. I propose incorporating into the memorial garden, elements that specifically honor the former inhabitants of Germantown Potter's Field. I envision benches or pavers, engraved with the names from the last remembered gravestones from about 100 years ago; three trees in their honor; and a native, medicinal plant garden. This land needs to heal.

In the interim, I installed a banner along one side of the burial ground that pose the questions –

DOES THIS HONOR THE LIVING? OR OUR ANCESTORS?

I also organized a block party (in conjunction with the exhibition Black Like That)

Though this community work is far from over, we know that we must find a way to honor the living and the dead; our community. The people once buried here deserve something better than a locked and barren greenspace. To be continued…