NorthStar Bench at Beechwood Cemetery

(Durham, NC)

In 2020 the City of Durham’s Cultural and Public Art Program chose my colleague, Whitney Hunt and me to create an art-inspired commemorative bench for the Beechwood Cemetery, a historically African-American cemetery established in 1924.

We created the NorthStar Bench, which is installed at Beechwood Cemetery located at 3300 Fayetteville Street in Durham, North Carolina. It is dedicated to the African American community of Durham, in admiration of their resilience, creativity, and leadership.

The six feet diameter circular base is made from glass fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC) that has been colored with pigment to achieve the bright blue color. The concrete is supported by a steel armature inside.

During our research, we found ourselves regularly discussing seven major attributes, that have shaped the vibrant African American community of Durham. These seven attributes are: resilience, enterprise, creativity, literacy, workmanship, independence, and leadership.

We etched these words into copper and brass plaques that are bolted to the side of the bench.

Above the bench, supported by a steel pole, rests a canopy in the shape of the North Star. Cut out of the star shape are handprints.

All handprints belong to members of the African American community and one of them to Aseelah Ameen. Aseelah is the great-great granddaughter of Emma Henderson who was enslaved at Stagville in Durham County.

After Emancipation, Emma stayed at Stagville as a sharecropper. One day her former enslaver accused her of insolence. With the words “My hair is as straight as yours, my skin is as light as yours and now I am quite as free as you” Emma turned and left Stagville for Durham.

Together with her husband, Dempsey, she started a family in Durham and over time they owned 70 acres of land in the city.

Emma walked out of Stagville a free woman, but many enslaved people only had the light of the NorthStar to follow. As the sun moves over the bench, the shadow of the star moves and so do the handprints inside the star.

Whitney and I imagined this to be a striking part of our design. Our expectations have been exceeded.