ImageThe artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons assembled poets, musicians and community members on Sept. 7 for a walk through Harlem communities undergoing gentrification, titled “Procession of Angels for Radical Love and Unity.” Participants donned white robes by Winston Bartholomew Holder III (House of Bartholomew).Credit...Graham Dickie/The New York Times

On a gray and drizzly Saturday morning, 120 people or so met at a small East Harlem park to begin a walk organized by the Cuban American artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons, whose work was the subject of a major retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum in 2023, the same year she won a MacArthur Fellowship.

At her request, the crowd, a mix of downtown art lovers and neighborhood residents, came dressed in white, yellow and blue; some carried signs provided at the park’s gate reading “Gratitude,” “Love,” “Unity!” The artist Carrie Mae Weems came to lend her support and a group of models wearing white robes designed by House of Bartholomew, a New York clothing line, carrying bundles of herbs, peacock feathers and flowers, stood in quiet formation around us.

ImageCampos-Pons, in blue, speaks to the “angels” before the beginning of the march at Harlem Art Park on 120th Street.Credit...Graham Dickie/The New York TimesImageThe procession stopped at multiple sites in Harlem and featured poetry readings, a musical performance and speeches about the history of the area especially its ties to Black, Cuban and Afro-Cuban life.Credit...Graham Dickie/The New York Times

In her welcoming remarks, Campos-Pons told the crowd that, rather than a protest, “this is a walk of love, a walk for hope, a walk for the future, a walk for people who precede us and for people who are not yet here.” Billed as a “Procession of Angels for Radical Love and Unity,” the event spans two mornings in September. Last Saturday’s route started at the Harlem Art Park, a cobblestone site on East 120th Street in the heart of a neighborhood home to African Americans and people from Puerto Rican, Mexican, Caribbean, and African diasporas. The second procession is on Sept. 20 and will begin in Central Park and end in Madison Square Park, in the wealthy Flatiron district.

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Campos-Pons said she was acutely aware of the disparities between the starting and ending points of her procession. “Madison Square Park is a beautiful, glorious park that receives a lot of attention, a lot of care. The Harlem Art Park is an underfunded little park,” she said in an interview. “I hope the procession will inaugurate a new conversation in New York about accessing justice by balancing resources.”

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