Have You Seen the Ark

In the 1980s, when popular visions of Newark steered many people clear of the city, visitors arrived from around the globe to see Kea Tawana's Ark, a three-story wooden boat that rose above the Central Ward. Over 2015-2016, Gallery Aferro and the Clement A. Price Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience at Rutgers University - Newark will collect oral history interviews with those who knew the Ark, gather relevant archival and press material, and launch an exhibition and public programming to explore the meaning and significance of this quintessential Newark story. More details about our discoveries, events, and offerings will be announced regularly throughout the next two years.

The Gallery and Institute seek to capture the complexity of the Ark story and its meanings by interviewing people with memories of it, from those who led the fights for an against it to those who may have just driven by it on their way to work. Anyone wishing to share their own story of the Ark should send a message to keas.ark@gmail.com or call Mark Krasovic at 973-353-1051