A new public art installation titled "Sail Through This to That" by conceptual artist indira allegra will debut on May 28 at Philadelphia's Spruce Street Harbor as part of the new ArtPhilly festival. The work features a trio of neon-colored schooner sails mounted on the historic vessel North Wind, commemorating the 1796 escape from enslavement of Ona Judge, who fled the household of George and Martha Washington.
The installation intertwines the story of Judge with that of Rem'mie Fells, a Black transgender woman and aspiring fashion designer murdered in 2020, connecting them through themes of freedom, self-expression, and Philadelphia's waterways. The work is a poetic act of public remembrance and a pointed counter-narrative, timed to the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence amidst ongoing national debates over how history is portrayed in public spaces.