She’s not like other Times Square statues, and that’s the point
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver-Velez
In last Tuesday’s Black Kos, Managing Editor dopper0189, posted this news story from Angela Wilson, at The Root:
A 12-Foot Bronze Statue of a Black Woman Pops Up in Times Square and MAGA is Absolutely Losing it
The plus-size Black woman statue with her hands on her hips has MAGA in a full-blown meltdown.
Times Square Arts Director Jean Cooney explained how the artwork “is making a statement, potentially asking questions, about what we value as a city, as a society, and hopefully it’s a tribute to our shared humanity.” Per Price’s website, the statue was created to “disrupt traditional ideas” about what a “triumphant figure” ought to look like.
But MAGA online don’t quite see it that way and well, we can’t say we’re exactly surprised.
Author and ex-investment banker John LeFevre took to X with a photoshopped image of the statue with Attorney General Letitia James real head edited in place.
He wrote: “My favorite thing about Letitia James is that she says ‘statue of limitations’ instead of ‘statute.’” SMH.
One conservative wrote on X: “BREAKING: New York puts up a 25 foot bronze statue of Letitia James in Time Square.”
As a New Yorker, and former art history major, I was curious to read/hear more, wishing that I could head downstate to the city to see it myself. Since that isn’t doable I had to settle for news coverage.
Here was a local CBS News Report:
A new statue in Times Square is turning heads. It's making people not only stop and stare, but also reflect – a rare feat in the middle of one of the busiest places in the world. CBS News New York's Zinnia Maldonado shows us how.
Andrew Keh, reported for The New York Times:
Times Sq. Sculpture Prompts Racist Backlash. To Some, That’s the Point.’
A 12-foot bronze statue of an anonymous Black woman has become a lightning rod in a fraught American debate about race, representation and diversity.
The bronze sculpture is intentionally unassuming, depicting an anonymous Black woman, casually dressed, with a neutral expression on her face and her hands on her hips.
But as soon as the 12-foot statue was erected last month in Times Square, it touched off a roiling debate — one that reflects both a long-simmering argument over public monuments, and a very 2025 political dispute about diversity and race in America.
A columnist for Fox News wondered why a statue of an “angry Black lady” had been displayed in the same city where a contentious monument of Theodore Roosevelt had been removed a few years back, while a writer for The Federalist described the work as “leftist cultural warfare.”
“This is what they want us to aspire to be?” Jesse Watters, the Fox News host, recently asked on his show. “If you work hard you can be overweight and anonymous?” He added, “It’s a D.E.I. statue.”
[...]
A string of racist social media posts has followed. Open X, and you can find AI-generated slop remaking Price’s statue as Aunt Jemima and the Oscar-winning actress Da’Vine Joy Randolph, along with crudely Photoshopped versions of Grounded in the Stars, one of which shows the woman depicted holding a KFC bucket and a watermelon. Open Instagram, and you can also find a mocking video from a white influencer who theatrically feigns being so overwhelmed by the sculpture that she is moved to tears. “She finally got the recognition she deserves. She’s done so much for our country,” reads that video’s sarcastic caption.
These posts all suggest that Grounded in the Stars has struck a nerve with a certain slice of the public that would rather not see monuments such as this one. That is a deeply unnerving and deeply flawed position—and a sign we should all be paying attention to the response to this piece.
ARTnews Senior Editor Alex Greenberger queried:
Why Does Thomas J. Price’s Monumental Statue of a Black Woman in Times Square Make People So Mad?
I watched as a Black woman stood before Price’s statue and mimicked the work’s pose by defiantly placing her hands at her hips. While that woman was having her picture taken, a white man went behind the sculpture and beamed as he palmed its buttocks. He, too, had his picture taken by someone who accompanied him. Meanwhile, the woman continued to pose on the other side.
Both reactions seemed emblematic of the response to Grounded in the Stars more broadly. To some, Price’s work has been seen as powerful and affirming, a statue that looks quite unlike the two white men—the Catholic priest Francis P. Duffy and the playwright George M. Cohan—monumentalized just steps away from the Price piece. (The Duffy and Cohan monuments are permanent, and have been there since 1937 and 1959, respectively; Price’s statue will come down on June 17.) Others have treated Grounded in the Stars as “a physical representation of the knots that wokeness has tied the Left into,” as the conservative journalist David Marcus wrote in a Fox News op-ed.
A string of racist social media posts has followed. Open X, and you can find AI-generated slop remaking Price’s statue as Aunt Jemima and the Oscar-winning actress Da’Vine Joy Randolph, along with crudely Photoshopped versions of Grounded in the Stars, one of which shows the woman depicted holding a KFC bucket and a watermelon. Open Instagram, and you can also find a mocking video from a white influencer who theatrically feigns being so overwhelmed by the sculpture that she is moved to tears. “She finally got the recognition she deserves. She’s done so much for our country,” reads that video’s sarcastic caption.
These posts all suggest that Grounded in the Stars has struck a nerve with a certain slice of the public that would rather not see monuments such as this one. That is a deeply unnerving and deeply flawed position—and a sign we should all be paying attention to the response to this piece.
x
Because we have been conditioned to believe that statues are for the exceptional — and “exceptional,” in the American monument tradition, has too often meant white, male, militarized, and mythologized. Grounded in the Stars interrupts that lineage!
🧵/1
[image or embed]
— FoodLab Detroit (@foodlabdetroit.bsky.social) May 15, 2025 at 6:54 AM
I was delighted to see journalist & filmmaker Megan Maher from Black Girl Nerds weigh in:
x
She has no name. No plaque. No backstory carved in stone. And yet, she rises. Twelve feet tall, calm and composed, right in the heart of New York City located in Times Square. A Black woman cast in bronze, not performing, not protesting, just present.
[image or embed]
— Black Girl Nerds (@blackgirlnerds.bsky.social) May 16, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Who Is the Black Woman Depicted in New Times Square Statue?
A Monument Made Familiar
She’s not abstract or trapped in an art-world mystery. She’s a regular-degular Black girl in sneakers, braids, and a T-shirt, standing tall in the middle of Times Square. The bronze isn’t polished to perfection. It’s textured just enough to feel familiar. Like skin. Like fabric. Like her.
Her pose is soft, a shifting contrapposto. One hip tilted, her weight settling onto a single leg, the other at ease. It’s a posture that breathes. Ancient sculptors used it to make stone feel alive, to let bodies speak, even in stillness. Here, it speaks of confidence, ease, and presence.
This is the same pose Michelangelo gave David. White marble, mythic masculinity, carved to dominate, but Thomas J. Price gives us something else. A woman made monumental by her ordinariness. She’s not here to imitate history. She’s here to reframe it.
In her body, contrapposto becomes something else entirely. Not a reference, but a reclaiming. No crown. No sword. Just stillness. The kind that hums with quiet power, like something’s about to happen, but only on her terms. Grounded in the Stars honors the kind of Black woman we pass every day but rarely see immortalized. There’s grace in her stillness, power in her quiet. Rooted in the real, reaching toward something bigger. She feels like all of us, and more.
Would love to hear your thoughts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The NBA legend pledged half a million dollars to the Louisiana HBCU to help raise money for student scholarships. MSNBC: Magic Johnson's Latest Assist: $500K To Xavier University
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson pledge of $500,000 to Louisiana’s Xavier University helped the school raise more than $2 million at its Centennial Gala on May 9.
Johnson’s donation at the university's 100th-anniversary celebration was made in honor of President Emeritus Dr. Norman C. Francis.
The money raised at the event will support student scholarships.
"The mark of a great man and who shows up," Johnson said at the Gala. "Because the man that you are, all the great things that you've done in your stellar career. And all the people that you helped. You became successful through your great leadership at Xavier… In your honor, I'm going to give Xavier $500,000."
Comedian Bill Bellamy (Any Given Sunday, former MTV VJ) hosted the ceremony. Jeffrey Osborne, the R&B legend and former L.T.D. lead singer, performed.
Francis, a graduate of Xavier University, was president of the school for 47 years, nearly half of its existence. He was responsible for sending many Black students to medical school. Under his leadership, student enrollment tripled.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After months of anticipation, Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor, has officially announced her run for governor of Georgia. Bottoms launched her gubernatorial campaign on Tuesday with the release of a video, aiming her political target directly at President Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
“Georgia families deserve far better than what Donald Trump and Republicans are giving us,” says Bottoms in the campaign video. “Most Georgians are right to wonder who’s looking out for us. Donald Trump is a disaster for our economy and our country, from his failure to address rising prices to giving an unelected billionaire the power to cut Medicare and Social Security.”
The 55-year-old Democrat also evokes memories of growing up in Atlanta during the 70s and 80s, and her grandmother, whom she remembered would call her and other relatives every morning.
“We didn’t need an alarm clock. We had grandmama,” Bottoms says in the opening of her campaign video.
The fifth-generation Georgian, who served as Atlanta mayor from 2018-2022, told theGrio that her grandmother, as well as her grandfather, “always looked out” for her family, “even when they had very limited resources.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By the age of six, Babirye Zainab had already contracted malaria several times. Her grandmother did not see it as a big problem though. “I would treat her with antimalarials and she would be all right,” she says.
But then she developed a fever and started to have convulsions. Her urine was the colour of tea, and her grandmother, who shares the same name, was worried enough to take her on a motorbike to the local health center.
“We were discharged. A month later, she had another episode. Since then, she has experienced quite a number of episodes of passing tea-colored urine,” she says.
Zainab is part of a medical riddle affecting rural Uganda.
She has blackwater fever, a rare but increasing complication of malaria that researchers are trying to explain. So named because patients’ urine turns dark with blood, it can be deadly.
Blackwater fever happens when red blood cells break down, rapidly, in the bloodstream. They release hemoglobin and this is excreted in urine. It can result in anemia and jaundice and require blood transfusion.
Prof Kathryn Maitland of Imperial College London, based in Kenya, was part of a team that noticed high numbers of children in eastern Uganda with blackwater almost a decade ago.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Voices & Soul
“… I do not need my freedom when I’m dead… “
- Langston Hughes
”Freedom”
by Black Kos Editor, Justice Putnam
On the evening of 4 June 1968, at the age of thirteen, I accompanied my father to the Ambassador Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. For several years, he had been writing policy and research papers for the California State Democratic Steering and Platform Committees. I had walked precincts and volunteered at the Kennedy Campaign Headquarters in the San Gabriel Valley for the preceding two months, so as a sort of reward, I was allowed to stay up past my regular bedtime to go with my father to what was, we were certain, to be a joyous, victory celebration.
Dad and I had been at the Ambassador since around 8:30pm. It was a huge and boisterous crowd. Normally, I retired before 10pm, so by a little after 11pm, and with Kennedy scheduled to join in at the ballroom around 11:30pm, I was pretty bushed. His speech would be broadcast on the radio, so Dad and I were on the I-10 for the 45 minute drive home when we heard Kennedy and five others had been shot.
I was at a department store near our home, in the television department when the news of Martin Luther King's assassination was broadcast on 4 April 1968. Dad had been teaching his history classes at Cal State Fullerton that day and evening and had not heard the news, so my revelation was the first he had heard of it. I had never seen my Dad cry, but he teared up when I told him. I couldn’t help but cry with him.
On the night of 31 January 2008, I was on a San Francisco BART train from Berkeley heading to my overnight stint at the small boutique hotel on Nob Hill I worked at, I was taken aback by how aggressive the cops were on the train. Other passengers sitting nearby commented on it. It seemed like the cops were a powder keg who didn’t want to be there and were just looking for an excuse, any excuse, and it put a pall on the New Year festivities. Later, the next day, I was terribly saddened, but not shocked when social media exploded over a shooting at the Fruitvale Bart station. It seemed Oscar Grant loosely fit the description of a young black man in America, a supposed sympathizer to the Thug Life and a threat to the community, the nation and the world, and so Oscar Grant was shot in the back by police in those early morning hours of 1 January 2009, while laying face down on the Fruitvale BART station platform.
I often wonder when true Freedom will come. I don’t mean the unshackling from this mortal coil, no, I’m talking about true Freedom, here and now. And I’m not talking about myself. I have all the freedom in the world and can do anything I want whenever I choose. I’m wondering about when true Freedom will come. A seed was planted long ago, and it wasn’t planted by me. But I still feel a duty to help in the harvest. Freedom must not rot on the limb. Freedom is meant to nurture a home, a community, a nation. Maybe even, a World in the here and now.
Freedom will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.
I have as much right
As the other fellow has
To stand
On my two feet
And own the land.
I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I’m dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread.
Freedom
Is a strong seed
Planted
In a great need.
I live here, too.
I want my freedom
Just as you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WELCOME TO THE TUESDAY PORCH
IF YOU ARE NEW TO THE BLACK KOS COMMUNITY, GRAB A SEAT, SOME CYBER EATS, RELAX, AND INTRODUCE YOURSELF.
