Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial | Boston Common | Downtown

Some pics from the non-wintry weekend.
 

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A monument to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King's love
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This past summer, workers at the Walla Walla Foundry, in the state of Washington, fashioned giant fingers, arms, hands, and a bracelet, to capture a shining moment in history. All the pieces are now assembled, and this Friday, one of the largest memorials dedicated to racial equality will be unveiled in America's oldest public park, Boston Common….
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/ma...-king-monument-the-embrace-boston-common/#app
 
The Embrace, Boston's New Monument to MLK, Coretta Scott King, Is Unveiled
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History was made on the Boston Common Friday as The Embrace monument was unveiled, honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King and the love they shared with the world.

Dignitaries from around Massachusetts joined with the King family at the unveiling of the 20-ton statue on the Boston Common, where the Kings had their first date and not far from the Parkman Bandstand, where King spoke back in 1965.

"Let this monument be a reminder to us, even here, that history remembers our embraces best of all, and that we have in us still the capacity and the call to love," former Gov. Deval Patrick said ahead of the unveiling.

https://news.google.com/articles/CB...zI5NDQxOTgvP2FtcD0x?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
 

Several excerpts from the Globe.
....
Embrace Boston got its start at the site of a very different monument to King. On a 2017 business trip to San Francisco, Paul English, the Boston tech entrepreneur, walked through that city’s sprawling Martin Luther King Memorial. At the time, he was reeling from the election of Donald Trump and the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va.

“There was a lot of nationalistic talk and xenophobia and racism that made me really anxious for the country,” he said. The walk through the San Francisco memorial inspired him to try to build Boston’s own version here.
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https://www.artandarchitecture-sf.com/martin-luther-king-memorial.html
^^^ The San Francisco Memorial,

There was debate about where to put the King monument. Some lobbied for Nubian Square in Roxbury, a predominantly Black neighborhood where King had deep roots. But English and Walker thought it should be in the city’s center where residents and visitors alike would be more likely to encounter it.

The debate ended up shifting and expanding Embrace Boston’s focus. The group plans to build an arts center and concert venue as part of an ongoing development project at a vacant lot across the street from Boston Police headquarters in Lower Roxbury.
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king_vibe said:
“Getting roasted on reddit,” is one of those negative space insults that makes me assume that this sculpture really is a masterpiece.
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There's nothing Bostonians dislike more than change. Next year it will be in 27% of Tinder profiles and in five years people would be complaining about proposals to move it.
 
737900er said:
Next year it will be in 27% of Tinder profiles
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I think you're right about this part - a lot of people in the replies to this tweet believe it looks like someone performing oral sex.

king_vibe said:
“Getting roasted on reddit,” is one of those negative space insults that makes me assume that this sculpture really is a masterpiece.
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Facebook and Twitter (and people I've spoken to in real life) are of similar opinions... one person who saw it for the first time with me thought it was "disrespectful". But it's worth taking a look at the majority opinions in some of the r/boston threads, such as this one (two others) to try to understand how most people are seeing it. While there are lots of dismissive comments that one can as trivially dismiss, there are plenty of thoughtful ones praising the idea and concept but raising concern with the execution. Others have more substantial concerns about the concept and selection process itself which I think are fair.
 
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king_vibe said:
“Getting roasted on reddit,” is one of those negative space insults that makes me assume that this sculpture really is a masterpiece.
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Maybe. Impressions of art certainly can change over time. The Day 1 impression is remarkably terrible though.
 
I mean... There's definitely precedent for a memorial to have an terrible first impression but then come to be seen as something remarkable: the Vietnam Memorial in DC was the subject of considerable controversy at the time of it's unveiling but now is one of America's favorite pieces of architecture. I haven't been to the common yet, but I think we'll come to appreciate it.
 
Seems like this has already been making the rounds elsewhere, but this was the first thing I saw when opened Instagram today. Posted by a non-Boston-oriented meme account, so we're getting coverage far and wide!

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Ruairi said:
the irish famine memorial is just normal statues and it's probably the worst piece of public art I've ever seen.
At least this is interesting.
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Agree. This will never be as iconic as something like Chicago's Bean sculpture which benefits from abstract simplicity on a grand scale lending itself to universal, all-encompassing interpretation and appreciation, but I'm pretty sure this will quickly become an identifiable visual marker of Boston and a tourist/IG destination.
 
theSil said:
Seems like this has already been making the rounds elsewhere, but this was the first thing I saw when opened Instagram today. Posted by a non-Boston-oriented meme account, so we're getting coverage far and wide!

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That sculpture is like a Rorschach test. Every time I look at a photo of it, I see something different.
 
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