Newark native Queen Latifah gives a voice to Harriet Tubman monument in city park

Spring is in the air, at Newark's public parks. So is something else: Change.

On Thursday, a monument honoring Harriet Tubman was unveiled, with much pomp and circumstance, in a spot where Christopher Columbus' statue once stood. The ceremony took place at 12:02 p.m. in Harriet Tubman Park — which was once called Washington Park.

The event, which included dignitaries such as Mayor Ras Baraka, First Lady Tammy Murphy, music star Queen Latifah, Tubman’s great-great-great-grandniece Michele Jones Galvin, and the monument's creator, Montclair artist Nina Cooke John, speaks volumes about the changes that have come about in the public sphere — and in the private conscience — after the May 25, 2020 killing of George Floyd.

"I think it was really important to acknowledge what was happening in the country in 2020, with this racial reckoning," said Aisha Glover, vice president of urban innovation for Audible, the audiobook streaming and podcast service that has called Newark home since 2007. They are a key collaborator in the project.

Giving Harriet a voice

The Tubman monument, "Shadow of a Face," is a towering wood and metal construction, with an image of the famous underground railroad conductor (1820-1913) on its round, winding base. Just as impressive, it talks to you.

Get within its sphere of influence, and you will hear Newark native Queen Latifah narrating Tubman's life and times, in 30- to 120-second sound bites. There is six hours of recorded material, so there's little chance of Queen L. repeating herself while you're around.

"We wanted the sound to be really high quality, not like listening to a radio in the park, or listening to anything through your phone," Glover said. "The sound comes in and out in a way that's beautifully curated and respectful of Tubman herself, and of the surroundings, and the neighbors, and Newark's history."

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This was a new challenge for Audible, which had to create not only high-quality sound and content, but also engineer it so it could withstand outdoor conditions, 365 days a year.

They will, at least, be able to keep an eye on it: Harriet Tubman Park, a triangular plot at the intersection of Broad Street, Washington Street and Washington Place, abuts Audible's corporate campus. Effectively, the monument is in their front yard.

"This is a really exciting opportunity to have our first permanent audio installation," Glover said. "This is something we haven't done before, and it's really appropriate to be able to do it in our hometown."

All of this came together organically, according to Glover. There was no master plan, in 2020, to swap out Columbus for Tubman — much less give her an electronic voice. It was just pieces falling into place. But it was also what the times demanded.

Meeting the moment

In May 2020, George Floyd's death at the hands of police shocked many Americans into a new consciousness of racism in America's past and present. A dozen Columbus statues came down in the two months following Floyd's death. Among them, Newark's — a 1927 gift to the city's Italians. (A statue of George Washington remains in the park.)

Columbus, for years, had been a symbol for the Italian contribution to American history. But as more of his actual behavior became widely known — especially his genocidal treatment of Native Americans — he became another kind of symbol.

"It think it was first an acknowledgment of the need for some of these symbols to come down," Glover said. "It wasn't an immediate decision, like now it will be Tubman."

Total immersion

On June 17, 2022 — Juneteenth — Baraka announced that the park would be renamed for Harriet Tubman, who is said to have helped more than 700 people escape from slavery. But it was only after John's winning monument design had been chosen (it was in response to a national open call) and the space had been planned out that Audible got involved.

"We wanted to produce and curate an immersive experience," Glover said. "The mayor and the artist and the architect were gracious enough to see the vision, and how much value it would add."

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And now the moment has arrived. Tubman is now a presence in the city of Newark. Which, incidentally, she may or may not have been in real life.

"We can probably assume that she was," Glover said. "There were Underground Railroad safe houses all over the state, and especially in Newark."