FREED, 2021

FREED, 2021. Walter Hood. , Artist and landscape designer Walter Hood took inspiration for the design of the John Robinson, Jr. Town Square from the surrounding history of Green Valley. Over the course of six years, Hood engaged residents and community leaders in the design process, supported in part through a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts Our Town program. Hood was especially influenced by Freedman's Village, a temporary community for escaped enslaved people and freepersons established at the end of the Civil War. It was built by the federal government near property which later became home to the Pentagon and Arlington Cemetery. Green Valley existed to the establishment of Freedmen's Village and was settled around 1844 when freed persons began to live and purchase land here. When the federal government closed Freedman's Village circa 1900, residents who remained in the area established or further populated several of Arlington County's traditionally African American neighborhoods including Arlington View, Hall's Hill and Green Valley., The primary design feature of the Town Square is the FREED sculpture, a 30-foot-tall beacon which pays homage to the notion of freedom, whether experienced as a historical or contemporary, personal or collective condition. Each letter consists of a laser cut pattern featuring the name of a historical subdivision or byname of Green Valley and a Ghanaian Adinkra symbol. As noted below, Hood imbues positive virtues with traditional wisdom to collectively represent the character of this community. These virtues further provide a link between the larger geography of the African diaspora.,

Letter 'F' , Nkknsonkonson, links of a chain, Green Valley, Letter 'R' , Akoma Ntoso, the joined hearts, Nauck, Letter 'E' , Dame Dame, intelligence and ingenuity, Nauckville, Letter 'E' , Aya, I am not afraid of you, Douglass Park, Letter 'D' , Aban, a castle, Fort Barnard Heights