For the first time in more than three decades, the Boston Common—Boston's expansive central park—has welcomed a new memorial. Titled The Embrace, the 20-foot-high and 25-foot-wide bronze sculpture honors the sweeping legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King and the power of their shared love.
"The Embrace will be a revolutionary space in our country's oldest public park for conversation, education, and reflection on the Kings’ impact in Boston and the ideals that continue to shape the fabric of our city,” said Boston Mayor Michelle Wu in a press release from the city. “The recognition of Coretta Scott King shows that we are a city that will take on the full legacy of Kings and challenge injustice everywhere from a place of love."
The Embrace was designed by Boston- and Kigali, Rwanda–based MASS Design Group in partnership with the New York–based artist Hank Willis Thomas. The team joined forces after Embrace Boston, an organization dedicated to arts and activism in the city, spurred a request for proposals for a memorial honoring the Kings. Inspired in part by the couple's iconic embrace following Dr. King's 1964 Nobel Peace Prize win, the MASS and Thomas proposal was selected from an initial pool of 126 applications and then from a five-project shortlist in 2019.
“The Embrace is a testament to what we can achieve when we come together,” said Thomas in a MASS press release. “The sculpture embodies people’s capacity for love, change, and hope for the future.”
Nestled into the Common's 6,000-square-foot, 1965 Freedom Plaza, The Embrace works in tandem with its surroundings to foster unity among visitors, aiming to "shift emphasis from a singular hero to collective emotion," according to the same MASS release. The plaza is articulated by custom, diamond-shaped granite pavers that "evoke African American quilt making traditions."
Circular benches border the plaza, which is also sheltered by a wall bearing a quote from Coretta Scott King. A bronze plaque in the plaza also honors fellow Boston civil rights leaders.
"I often reflect on the landscape of memorials in Boston and across the country," said MASS´s Jha D Amazi, Public Memory and Memorials Lab director and principal, over email. "In Boston, there are few memorials that honor the existence of Black folks and people of color in this city, let alone the positive contributions of said folks. We have memorials in the landscape that reference slavery, war, and moments of tragedy. But to have a piece that celebrates, uplifts, and demands love, Black love, Black stories, Black experiences, Black presence—that begins to shift the narrative and gives us an opportunity to say, what does it mean to not just be represented in our public's landscapes, but to be celebrated in our public landscape. The Embrace is a permanent anchor in one of the most important spaces in this city and we are a contributor to the progress and to the future that is possible. And that is astounding.”