“Triumph of the Human Spirit” by Dr. Lorenzo Pace is the world’s largest site-specific installation venerating the experience of African American slavery. It was erected on the rediscovered African Burial Ground.
The 2025 celebration event will take place Thursday, October 9, 2025 beginning at the African Burial Ground National Monument and then proceed to Foley Square in the Civic Center neighborhood of Lower Manhattan bordered by Lafayette Street, Worth Street, and Centre Street, New York, NY.
Installed in 2000, Triumph of the Human Spirit is a five-story-high, 300-ton sculpture commissioned by the City of New York through the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Percent for Art program to pay homage to those interred in the African Burial Ground, which lies beneath the Monument’s footprint and stretches for nearly seven square miles below the concrete and asphalt of lower Manhattan.
The annual commemoration teaches early New York City history and celebrates the resilience passed on to all of us by the diverse communities that the monument honors. This event will include dance, drumming, history lessons, and art-making.
For more information, send email to publicaffairs@culture.nyc.gov
