North is Freedom by Doug Bamford and Stephen Brathwaite featuring a poem by George Elliott Clarke is one of many public artworks installed across the Halifax Regional Municipality.
Doug Bamford and Stephen Brathwaite featuring a poem by George Elliott Clarke, 2007
Corten steel, bronze
Halifax North Memorial Public Library
About the artwork
Commissioned in 2006 as an initiative to provide a public art compliment to the redesign of the North Branch Memorial Library’s entry plaza, the corten steel sculpture is inscribed with an original poem by noted poet, author, and playwright George Elliott Clarke. The monolith also features two young figures (a third stands atop the library itself), ascending the face of the sculpture. The figures were cast by the artists with the willing participation of several local youth.
From the artists website:
This monument chronicles the rich history of the community surrounding the Halifax North Memorial Library, the neighbourhood known as the North End of Halifax. Conceptualized and realized by a collaborative team made up of Stephen Brathwaite, George Elliott Clarke and Douglas Bamford. Stephen Brathwaite lead the way on the figurative component. Casts taken directly from students from nearby St Patrick’s School become permanent players in the daily drama of one person helping the other through life’s trials, while a youth firmly planted on the library looks on. George Elliott Clarke wrote the namesake Poem “North is Freedom”. Clarke grew up in the neighbour hood and his first job was at the library. Clarke’s short tomb speaks directly to the past and future hopes and dreams of this community, seated in the Library.
Douglas Bamford designed and oversaw fabrication of the monolith that the male and female figures are mounted on. The surface of the monolith carries information about the neighbourhoods history. The focus being more on its history after Africville and not it’s Colonial Garrison History. Over a six month research period Bamford met at the Library with numerous community organizations and individuals including teen leadership group, children’s reading group, women’s groups, local poets and writers such as Shauntay Grant and David White who all graciously volunteered writings. These collected bits of information are arranged in a grid composition to refer to a city street scape.
The words are etched deeply into the Corten Steel surface to form a patterned, textured surface of the monolith. The Corten Steel was chosen for the beautiful rich rust patina that forms as it ages. As a result of this community research a permanent wall of historical and personally relevant stories, poems and even a recipe, cut directly into the steel. The combination of the figures, “North is Freedom” poem and the bits of history, this work has emerged a deeply integrated and meaningful beacon at the center of this historical neighbourhood.
