Unpaid Labor Day 2020
Lower Manhattan // Financial District 26 Wall St, New York CityInaugural Moving Monument Ritual for Ona Maria Judge Staines
Unpaid Labor Day
Monday, September 7, 2020
12pm – 1:30pm EDT
Lower Manhattan
(Social distancing expected and implored)
WALL STREET:
12pm — Federal Hall
12:20pm — NYSE
BROADWAY PROMENADES:
12:40 — NYSE to St. Paul’s Chapel
1:00 — St. Paul’s Chapel to African Burial Ground
MOVEMENT // SOUND // STILLNESS // SILENCE
Ona Judge was born into slavery before the American Revolution. She was a seamstress and Martha Washington’s body servant and “pet.” While George was serving his second term, on May 21, 1796 at age 22, she quietly absconded from Philadelphia on a ship to New Hampshire as they ate dinner. With the help of the Free Black and abolitionist communities, she lived as a fugitive for the rest of her life. This ritual is the first in a living monument series to a forgotten Founding Mother.