"We Carry the Light" Mosaic Sculpture

Location: The Historic Rosenwald Apartments, Chicago IL

Between 46th and 47th Street, Wabash and Michigan Ave

Project Description:

​The Sankofa is a mythical bird that flies forward while looking backward with an egg symbolizing the future. In the Twi language of Ghana, "Sankofa" translates to "it is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot.” In other words, Sankofa teaches us to go back to our roots, gather the best of what our past has to teach us in order to achieve our full potential as we look towards the future.

The light emitting from the Sankofa egg is the inextinguishable energy of our ancestors. This energy gave stamina to our African ancestors as they journeyed the Middle Passage and empowered slaves to relentlessly resist. This force inspired their attempts to escape, revolt, and even enlist in the Civil War to fight for their freedom. This energy persevered black codes during Reconstruction, pressed forward during the Great Migration, and when limited by the City’s boundaries of segregation, gave rise to one of the premiere centers of African-American culture — Bronzeville. - Source