The "Hands of Gold" illustration on the cover of an early edition of Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet.
A few months after the "Kahlil Gibran returns to New York after 100 years" exhibition at the Crystal Palace in New York, the world-famous Lebanese-American author of The Prophet will once again be honored in the Big Apple, this time with a sculpture inspired by his work.
The initiative, launched by the Kahlil Gibran Collective, an online platform "dedicated to the life and work" of the writer and illustrator from Bsharri, North Lebanon, aims to mark the centennial of the publication of The Prophet, a collection of some 20 poetic fables and Khalil Gibran's most famous work.
It will be the first statue to pay tribute to the writer in New York, the city in which he lived from 1912 until his death in 1931.
In an interview with Arab News, the collective's director, Glen Kalem-Habib, points out the irony of the absence, to date, of a monument commemorating the poet in the city in which he lived and died, despite the fact that such monuments already exist in Boston and Washington.
The sculpture will be installed in the garden of St. Mark's Church in the Bowery district, near Kahlil Gibran's former apartment, now demolished.
This location is of particular significance, as it is where the first public reading of The Prophet is said to have taken place in 1923.
Rather than opting for a traditional bust of the author, the monument will be inspired by a drawing by Gibran himself, entitled The Hand of God, which adorned the cover of the original publication of The Prophet and shows an open hand, from which flames and bodies raising their arms emanate.
A cedar tree will be planted in the garden next to the statue.
Lebanese artist Rudy Rahmeh, also from Bsharri, has been commissioned to bring the sculpture to life.
It will be inaugurated during a weekend of events organized between Sept. 21 and 23, to mark the centennial of the publication of The Prophet.
Several events, including a seminar on the New York campus of the Lebanese American University, are scheduled to take place at the same time.
