AFRICAN CEMETERY MEMORIAL  continued

OUR READERS RESPOND TO THIS ARTICLE


MORE AFRICAN BURIAL GROUNDS
Hurrah, Dennis! Thanks for expressing for us unemotive whitefolks the feelings implicit in this forgotten intersection of graves and roads and history and peoples. We need your voice to touch our ears and hearts, as well as the voices of Valerie Cunningham and other members of the local African-American community. We're all in a learning process, and with the guidance of artistic insight a site worthy of these unremembered lives can lead us towards healing.
Jennifer Stiefel

What a great, affecting essay on the African burial ground memorial. I was close to tears...usually am when that's mentioned. Somehow, it would be helpful if the design drew in the curious, beguiling them with a bit of nice and then shocked them with the truth when they reached the Court Street end. Please keep on keeping on. You're SO needed.
Pat Wall.

AFRICAN BURYING GROUND 
To the Editor of the NH Gazette: I agree with J. Dennis Robinson that the memorial should honor those buried below while actively engaging our minds, as opposed to a memorial that invites one to sit on their behind. The hand emerging from the earth idea is a good one. I recently had a conversation with a Zulu African about their round huts, these buildings are spiritual places where people go to seek guidance from their ancestors, only elders are allowed to sleep there and children to keep the elders company. I would love to see a small hut, and a tree in the park surrounded by a discriminating round fence that only lets children in (the elders are already there). They can go into the hut and inscribed on the wall are the names of the African tribes that helped found this country. Let¹s provoke the children, the promise of our future, to discuss.
Didi Wallace, Portsmouth, NH