“Bear Witness,” created by Kristi Rangel, is an annual participatory public art gathering honoring Ann Taylor (born March 20, 1845).
Through journaling, floral installation, and land-based practices, participants engaged memory, ancestry, and imagination. Guided by artist Sheila Savannah, attendees created with found and natural materials; binding, writing, and reflecting on the verge of liberation.
Across the site, benches become portals of rest. Spaces to pause, to write messages to ancestors, and to leave offerings at Ann Taylor’s gravesite. Walking meditation and prairie planting extended remembrance into the land.
Oral histories, were collected by the Houston Public Library’s Gregory School, preserving the voices and legacies of African American women within the City of Houston’s archives.
These photographs do not document the event, they bear witness to it. Holding moments of presence, memory, and becoming.
