{"id":809685,"date":"2026-05-20T11:02:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T11:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/809685\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T11:02:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T11:02:19","slug":"philly-artists-words-to-be-inscribed-on-new-harriet-tubman-statue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/809685\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly artist\u2019s words to be inscribed on new Harriet Tubman statue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

Andre Saunders shares his love for art and creativity in many ways. As a Philly-based poet, author, creative writing teacher and hip hop artist, Saunders already has a long list of things to be proud of.<\/p>\n

And he can now add one more accolade to the list \u2013 he is the winner of Creative Philadelphia\u2019s contest to add an inspirational quote to the base of a new Harriet Tubman statue.<\/p>\n

The contest called for quotes that answered the question: \u201cWhat does it mean to walk in Harriet Tubman\u2019s footsteps today?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The winning quote reads: \u201cCarry your light into the dark, for on the other side of fear is freedom.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA friend of mine gave me a book the day before [I submitted the quote] to just get me in the right mental space, a quick read,\u201d Saunders said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI read that and just settled my thoughts, and I had a list of notes that I had written with just ideas, and then I kind of went and grabbed the pieces that I thought would resonate the most, and then I wrote the quote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saunders explained he was very confident with his submission. He said he is grateful that the community saw his vision with the quote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter if it\u2019s one person or a million people, I am always grateful for people to support me and recognize my work and my words, and I\u2019m just happy that it means that much to people,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m glad that people thought that it was fitting for the occasion of such a historic statue and something so meaningful.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Initial controversy\u00a0<\/p>\n

The contest and quote submission process follows years of controversy over the statue. <\/a>The statue was initially a temporary exhibit sculpted by a white artist Wesley Wofford.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Artist Alvin Pettit talks about his concept for a statue of Harriet Tubman. She is armed with a long gun across her back and a sword and pistol in her belt. She stands on a mound of chains and shackles. Her hands are clenched in prayer. (Emma Lee\/WHYY)<\/p>\n

When the city commissioned Wofford to create a permanent statute, some residents expressed concerns that the commission process was not transparent enough and did not include enough voices, particularly for Black artists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The city responded by issuing an open call for artists, and after several rounds, New York\/New Jersey-based artist Alvin Pettit was chosen.<\/a> The statue\u2019s design attempts to capture Tubman \u201cas a conqueror.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The final statue, with Petit\u2019s design and Saunders\u2019 quote inscription, is expected to be in front of City Hall later this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just very honored and grateful to be selected for such a big cause of something so historic in the city,\u201d Saunders said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today. \u2014 Andre…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":809686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,648,298541,407,292806,1448,2830,1311,307164,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-809685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-arts","tag-creative-philadelphia","tag-education","tag-harriet-tubman","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-philly-arts","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116606570771045081","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}