The sixth-generation grandson of Sojourner Truth, Cory Mcliechey, came to Yonkers from Grand Rapids, Mich., to meet local artist Vinnie Bagwell. New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation commissioned Bagwell to create a 7-foot bronze sculpture of the abolitionist and women’s rights activist for the Walk Over the Hudson Welcome Center in Poughkeepsie.
Bagwell is also creating “Bibi,” the fifth sculpture for the Enslaved Africans’ Rain Garden, an urban-heritage sculpture garden for Yonkers. It will be completed in spring 2020, pending funding from the City of Yonkers and the County of Westchester.
Bagwell’s first public artwork was “The First Lady of Jazz Ella Fitzgerald” at Yonkers Metro-North/Amtrak train station.
Bagwell shares her creative process on social-media platforms to enable community participation, the exchange of ideas worldwide, as well as to engage viewers who may not normally have the opportunity to see the daily creation of sculpture and public art. Although she and Cory Mcliechey were Facebook friends before she won the commission, she didn’t know his relationship to Truth until he called to schedule the visit.
“It was a great meeting,” said Bagwell. “Cory actively steps into his destiny as a descendant of a historic icon Sojourner Truth. He came here out of love and to fulfill the duty of upholding and perpetuating her legacy.”
Presently, Bagwell is a finalist for New York City’s $1 million “Beyond Sims” public art commission to replace the sculpture of J.Marion Sims for Central Park. She’s also a finalist for the “Breaking the Bronze Ceiling,” a $500,000 public art commission to celebrate the centennial of the Women’s Suffrage Movement in Lexington, Ky.
Also, Bagwell just won a public art commission in Norfolk, Va., for the new Richard Tucker Library.
You may follow Vinnie Bagwell on social media.
