Gateway to Black Eden

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This monumental steel artwork is the artist’s expression and reflection of the African American lake resort experience in America during years before passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1965. It specifically recalls Idlewild, a traditionally African American resort near Baldwin, Michigan.

This sculpture will also be the first at the Art Park to include music and spoken word. Detroit Bassist and Composer Marion Hayden and author Melba Joyce Boyd are creating a new composition as part of this new sculpture. A recording will be activated through a QR code on the sculpture sign.

“Black Eden in Idlewild”

For the sculpture by Saffell Gardner and the symphonics by Marion Hayden

by
Melba Joyce Boyd

Idle in the Wild,
return to the source,
reunite with life
and commune
with forces
of origin:
earth, fire, water
and wind.
We come from
Chicago, Detroit,
Cleveland and
Grand Rapids,
we circle the
Great Lakes
to seek peace in
“Black Eden,”
the gateway to
escape from the
artifice of civilization,
from the rhetoric
of societies
contrived inside
destructive
demographies.
Enter the sanctity
of nature to engage
God’s majesty,
dance with dragonflies,
skimming above the lake,
follow monarch butterflies,
fluttering between leaves,
wonder at robins
and cardinals speaking
in song, while crows
squaw at ravens,
scaling a blue,
canvas sky.
We escape

to this place,
to unshackle
mind traps,
to forget factory
fumes and the
turmoil of civilization
to inhale clean air,
and to quench
a thirst for
still waters.
Like fetal motions
cradled inside
mother’s womb,
arms reach beneath
the waves of the lake,
swimming to shore
to tread land
that belongs
to no man,
who threatens
or offends,
strolling between
swaying trees
inside cosmic calm,
spirits intertwine,
like fingers grasping
for blades of grass,
our brown skin
blends into
Eden’s garden.
An orange sunset
envelops Idlewild,
moths and stories
encircle campfires,
giggling children
chase fireflies to
capture light
in glass jars,
and the magic of
“The Chautauqua”
ascends with
Aretha’s voice
in celebration
in Club Paradise,

where orchestras
celebrate the
genius of Ellington,
blessing the stage,
where jazz
underscores lavender
skies and elevates
souls soaring
with moonbeams.
beneath sacred
umbrellas inside
the invisibility
of dreams,
ancestors visit
to bless our retreat
while we sleep
inside life renewed
in “Black Eden.”