Throughout February, WTOP is celebrating Black History Month. Join us on air and online as we bring you the stories, people and places that make up our diverse community.
With its gardens and art installations, Arlington’s Met Park, in Pentagon City, has been open for almost two years now. But one prominent feature still holds a surprise for many visitors.
What looks like a brick tower that might have been something old the park was built around, is actually an art installation itself, reminding visitors of the history of the land on which the park sits.
That area, next to Amazon HQ2, used to be an African American community known as Queen City. But it disappeared in the 1940s, when the land was taken for the construction of roads leading up to the Pentagon and residents were forced to move.
When it opened, artist Nekisha Durrett said it was in researching the stories of those displaced residents that she came up with the idea for “Queen City.” That’s the name of the tower and the 903 teardrop-shaped sculptures that are inside.
They hang from the interior walls of the circular structure, drawing your eyes up to a skylight at the top. Each vessel is crafted by Black ceramists, including some from the D.C. area, and is meant to represent a person who was displaced.
As part of WTOP’s commemoration of Black History Month, WTOP recently reported on the history of that long-lost community in East Arlington, and how the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington is helping keep the memory of the Queen City community alive.
The “Queen City” art installation came about as part of Amazon’s development of its second headquarters and the area known as Met Park.
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