Monument to Dinah, RIGHT HERE, by Karyn Olivier

Stenton Historic Home, Philadelphia

Six years in the making, the RIGHT HERE monument commemorates Dinah, a formerly enslaved woman who lived and worked at Stenton and saved the home from being burned by the British. She is renowned for her courage and strategic actions which includes bravely negotiating her own manumission from enslavement.

From 2018 until the unveiling in April 2024, I was the public art curator for the award-winning Dinah monument project, commissioned by the Stenton historic home in Germantown, Philadelphia. A public history and engagement project, Stenton engaged me to join a collaborative team to memorialize and elevate the story of Dinah, who was enslaved at Stenton and gained her freedom. Stenton had primarily interpreted the story of the Logan family who owned and operated the home for generations, and made the intentional and impactful decision to interpret the lesser-known histories of the enslaved people who also lived and worked at Stenton. As a Chicago-based curator, I traveled to Philly as needed to work with a community facilitator to capture what mattered to local residents in the representation and interpretation of Dinah. I lead a national search and a 3-tiered proposal process to identify artists to develop proposals in response to what community members desired for the project. The final step was a community vote, leading to RIGHT HERE, a new monument by artist Karyn Olivier. Hundreds gathered at Stenton on April 20 to celebrate the unveiling of this groundbreaking artwork.

Curating RIGHT HERE and collaborating with this extraordinary team has influenced so much of what I do now as a community-engaged curator and leader of monumental public art projects, including founding Monumenta. I’m deeply grateful for the invitation and leadership from Stenton, the trust and brilliance of Karyn Oliver, the support from Pew Arts and Heritage, and the generosity of community members who shared so much with me.