Artists
The combined talents of many fine artists and creators have resulted in a Memorial like no other.

Built to human scale, the Memorial's sculptures, story wall, and granite-inlaid compass rose are both intimate and inclusive. Memorial elements embrace the waters of the Chesapeake Bay to touch distant shores and connect us to a broader world.

Dramatic lighting at night illuminates the Memorial – and so illuminates one family's story representative of so many family stories.

The following artists had a primary role in the creation of the Memorial:

Site Design: Gary S. Schwerzler, interpretive architect;

Sculpture Group: Ed Dwight, internationally recognized sculptor from Denver, Colorado;

Story Wall: Peter D. Tasi, graphic designer of the bronze plaques and Patricia Fisher McHold, sculptor/painter, and partner in the design and execution of the illustrative plaque borders;

Story Wall Narrative: Wiley A. Hall, 3rd, Executive Editor of the Afro-American Newspapers;

Information Stand: Peter D. Tasi, graphic designer;

Construction: Joe Baker, City of Annapolis; Fort Meyer Construction Company; Pagliaro Brothers Stone Company; and Signcraft, Inc.

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Gary Schwerzler - Site Design
Land and Water Combine to Deliver a Unique and Intimate Experience.

Gary S. Schwerzler is the interpretive architect behind the design of the entire memorial complex, from its inception in 1992 to its completion in 2002. Schwerzler created, with broad community input, a Memorial site design that seamlessly integrates the bronze sculpture group, compass rose, story wall, and other components with the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. The Memorial site is an accessible, compelling and inspirational public space at the center of the city of Annapolis at the foot of it’s harbor.

As President and Principal Architect of Fourth Street Design Studio, a full-service architectural firm in Annapolis, Maryland, Schwerzler has designed projects throughout the greater Washington-Baltimore-Annapolis region. A graduate from Carnegie Institute of Technology, his designs for residential and commercial structures have been feature in Country Home, Southern Living, and Annapolitan magazines, among others. He also was a Program Director and Professor of Architecture at Anne Arundel Community College.

An integral member of the Annapolis community, Schwerzler has served on the board of Historic Annapolis Foundation, Inc., was Chairman of the Annapolis City Planning and Zoning Committee, a former President of the Ward One Association, and a current member of the board for Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Foundation.

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Ed Dwight - Sculpture Group

The sculptor of the Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial, Ed Dwight, has created some 55 monuments and memorials to important Americans. Dwight memorials to noted African Americans include: A. Phillip Randolph, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., George Washington Carver, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Hank Aaron, and Dr. Benjamin Mays. One of Dwight's largest memorials is a tribute to the Underground Railroad installed on the grounds of the Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Ed Dwight began his career as a graduate engineer, a former USAF Test Pilot and America's first African American Astronaut trainee. After a successful career as a real estate and construction entrepreneur, he has dedicated the last 23 years solely to his art endeavors. Dwight earned a Masters Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Denver in 1977. Today, Dwight has become one of the premier figurative artists in the world with works in private collections, institutions and major museums, including the Smithsonian Institution.

His first commission, by the State of Colorado Centennial commission, was a series of bronzes depicting the contribution of African Americans to the American Frontier West. In 1979, he was encouraged to create a bronze series portraying the history and historical roots of Jazz. The acclaimed series, entitled "JAZZ: An American Art Form," now consists of over seventy bronzes memorializing such jazz masters as Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzie Gillespie.

Ed Dwight resides in Denver, Colorado. He is the owner of Ed Dwight Studios, one of the largest single-artist production and marketing facilities in the western U.S.

Ed Dwight with "Our Mother of Africa", Washington, D.C.	Hank Aaron Atlanta, GA

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Peter D. Tasi - Story Wall Design
Art and Graphics Help Tell the Story

Peter D. Tasi, exhibition designer for nearly 40 years, designed the graphics for the ten bronze, one-of-a-kind, plaques that comprise the Story Wall. A graduate of Pratt Institute in graphic, architectural and industrial design, Tasi designed U.S. government exhibitions locally and abroad. Later, with two partners in Washington, D.C. he produced the opening exhibit for the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, and first logo for the National Endowment for the Arts. After establishing his own studio in Annapolis, Maryland, Tasi designed numerous exhibitions for the Jewish Museum of Maryland.

His design approach to the Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial’s Story Wall drew upon his work with the Eastport Historical Walking Tour and the Annapolis Gateway exhibition at City Dock. He serves as the director of exhibitions for the Annapolis Maritime Museum.

Patricia Fisher McHold
Artist Patricia Fisher assisted Tasi in plaque design. McHold has been a sculptor and painter for over 30 years. Her masks in paper, clay and other media have been used in dance productions and stem from an interest in ritual and psychodrama. Her work has received awards in national and regional juried competitions and is in numerous corporate collections, including Baltimore Gas & Electric, Verizon Telephone, United Technologies, University of Maryland Medical Center, National Institutes of Health, and the White House Christmas Tree Archives.

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Wiley A. Hall - Story Wall Narrative Shares Message of Love, Reconciliation, and Universal Hope

Award winning journalist Wiley A. Hall, 3rd conceptualized and wrote the text for the story wall plaques, drawing upon epigraphs translated from Alex Haley’s Pulitzer prize winning book, Roots.

A native of Washington, D.C., Hall has been a writer and communicator for over 25 years. As writer for the Baltimore Sun, he won awards for his reporting on criminal justice, education and politics. A 1984 series on racial disparities in prison brought him a Pulitzer Prize nomination. As a Sun columnist, Hall won dozens of awards from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, and others. His writing is included in Thinking Black, an anthology of African-American columnists published by Crown Books, and in a personal work, Urban Rhythms, Urban Blues.

Hall became executive editor of the Afro-American Newspapers in 2001. In this role, he sets editorial policy for all Afro publications; his column “Urban Rhythms” appears weekly in the Afro and other papers in Baltimore, Atlanta and Richmond. He received a Distinguished Citizen Alumni Award from his alma mater, Macalester College, in 1995, and is listed in Marquis’ Who’s Who in America.

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