Statue of political trailblazer Shirley Chisholm coming to Prospect Park

Almost five years after plans were first announced for a statue honoring political trailblazer Shirley Chisholm at Prospect Park, city officials have approved a final design.

The Public Design Commission, which has jurisdiction over all permanent works of art in the city, unanimously approved the latest iteration of the design by artists Amanda Williams and Olalekan B. Jeyifous on Monday.

Following previous feedback, the artists presented their updated design on Monday — showing the green and yellow statue honoring the first Black female congressmember standing at 32-feet-tall at the Parkside entrance of the park — eight feet shorter than the original design.

In a statement included in their presentation Monday, the artists said the monument — which will compose a silhouette of Chisholm intertwined with the dome of the U.S. Capitol — would symbolize how she “disrupted the perception of who has the right to occupy such institutions.”

Before unanimously voting to approve the design, multiple PDC commissioners praised the design and congratulated the artists.

“I think this is the most exciting project or the project that excites me the most since that I’ve seen since I’ve been a commissioner here because it's so powerful, and I think Shirley Chisholm is such an important and powerful figure,” said Vice President Jimmy Van Bramer, a former member of the City Council. “For it to be this grand, on this scale, in this place seems so fitting.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Cultural Affairs said it's working toward a 2025 installation of the statue.

Plans for the monument were first announced in November of 2018 as part of the She Built NYC initiative led by former First Lady Chirlane McCray with the goal of commissioning public works that honored women’s history in the city. The artists and their initial design were then chosen in April of 2019, with plans for the statue to be installed in 2020. But the Department of Cultural Affairs said the pandemic delayed the design approval process.

"After artist selection for the Shirley Chisholm monument was completed, the design process was subsequently delayed by the pandemic, along with other City capital and She Built NYC projects,” Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Laurie Cumbo said in a statement. “This administration is committed to working to tell a more complete story surrounding the trailblazing women who have shaped our city, and we are ready to get more of these projects back underway."

Born and raised in Bed-Stuy, Chisholm went on to be the first Black woman to serve in Congress representing Brooklyn’s 12th Congressional District, and the first woman to seek the Democratic presidential nomination. Her New York Times obituary after she died at the age of 80 in 2005 described her as “an outspoken, steely educator-turned-politician who shattered racial and gender barriers.”