Rodney Leon is founder of the firm Rodney Leon Architect and designer of the Ark of Return, the Permanent Memorial in Honour of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade at the United Nations.

Reflections on the Tenth Anniversary of the Ark of Return

The Ark of Return memorial (foreground) on the United Nations Visitors Plaza, United Nations Headquarters, New York. Credit: Rodney Leon
Inside the Ark of Return memorial. Credit: Rodney Leon
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon inaugurates Permanent Memorial to Honour the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade--the Ark of Return--on the Visitors Plaza, United Nations Headquarters, New York, 25 March 2015. Credit: Rodney Leon

Visitors are meant to pass through the Ark of Return—the Permanent Memorial in Honour of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade—to intimately experience three primary elements addressing the past, present and future.