M’Finda Kalunga Garden

The M’Finda Kalunga Garden holds a name that translates to Garden at the Edge of the Other Side of the World in the Kikongo language. This title serves as a memorial to a historic African American burial ground that once occupied a site nearby on Chrystie Street. Beginning in the late eighteenth century, that cemetery provided a final resting place for Black New Yorkers who faced systematic exclusion from local church graveyards. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the burial ground closed and was built over, leading the community to later establish this garden as a way to honor those forgotten ancestors.