Lauren P. McAloon

This gathering of 295 staffs pay homage to the Africans who were buried in the West Martello area after their rescue from illegal slave traders in the 1860’s. The staffs are capped with belaying pins - used on sailing ships to secure rigging-as well as iron nail designs inspired by the art and culture of the Africa that these people called home. The bamboo staffs murmur with the winds that carried the captives from their homelands, and the bottles -often placed at gravesites in many African cultures – add to the aural mood this piece evokes in a reflection on a largely overlooked but significant event in Key West history. Lauren McAloon lives in Key West and Nova Scotia.