[water rushing gently] [birds chirping] [inspirational piano music] [inspirational piano music continues] [music fades] - One, two, three.

[crowd cheers and applauds] We are open!

[inspirational piano music] - We had a hundred years of plans for the riverfront.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music continues] Memphis deserves this park.

It's time for Memphis to have a park like this new Tom Lee Park.

There's so much intention about what this park is.

It's also designed for folks to be able to come and leave differently from how they came.

Memphis absolutely deserves a park that has them in mind.

- When we say a riverfront for everyone, we really do mean that.

We want to make sure that regardless of what you need, our park has it, whether that be recreation and enjoyment, a place to meet or a place just to relax and clear your thoughts.

That's what we mean when we say a riverfront for everyone.

[upbeat music] - The origin story of Tom Lee Park is pretty simple.

In 2017, what was then the Riverfront Development Corporation commissioned a study that was paid for by the Kresge Foundation and the Hyde Family Foundation locally to take a look at every plan that had been done for the riverfront for a hundred years and engaged the community in looking at those plans and saying, "What do we do on our riverfront?"

And Tom Lee Park ended up being a real priority for two reasons.

One is it's the most visible piece of real estate on our riverfront.

And second, and most important, it is adjacent to downtown.

- The Memphis River Parks Partnership comes after a long line of successful public-private partnerships in this community.

So the Memphis River Parks Partnership controls the five parks along that five-mile riverfront.

It has a group of concerned people who sit on their board of directors who go out and actively fundraise to make sure that we've got the funds we need to provide a riverfront that this community deserves.

[upbeat music] - This is a $61 million project, ob viously a lot of money, so we've had to work really hard to raise that money.

But we've always thought that it's very important that it be kind of a public-private partnership and that we try to leverage any government funds that are invested with private dollars.

- Tom Lee Park is such a civic jewel for our community, we wanted to make sure we did it right.

So after countless public meetings raising millions of dollars and lots of public discussion and discourse, we are on our way to finally finishing Tom Lee Park and opening it this year.

[upbeat music] - Downtown, if you look 10, 15 years ago, had pockets of assets, little jewels sprinkled around, but they weren't connected.

And the riverfront, of course, is a huge part of knitting together all of these extraordinary assets and lifting them up.

So connection's been a big theme.

- And obviously, the city was located here because of the access to the river.

And originally all commerce and the viability of the city was based on the traffic up an d down the Mississippi River.

[upbeat music] - Cities all over the world have redone their riverfronts, reclaimed them from industrial uses, cleaned them up, and then used them for people.

The strange thing is we own the la nd as the City of Memphis.

We didn't have to buy anything, we didn't have to remediate it, we just needed to use it.

- Memphis was a planned city.

The founders laid it out very particularly.

They designated parts of the riverfront as always being public.

We call it the public promenade, and that was in 1819.

And then in 1924, an architect Bartholomew came in at the request of the city and made a plan of what the riverfront could be.

Keep in mind at that time particularly the riverfront was still an industrial area.

That's where cotton was offloaded.

And you go down Front Street, there were big bales of cotton in front of all the cotton houses at that time.

And so you had to balance public access to the river with this industrial access to the river.

- It's important to note that this originally was Astor Park, where you had a obelisk to Tom Lee that sat within that space.

Part of what occurred with the City of Memphis Corps of Engineers Stabilization Project was the expanded acreage that came into place that then led to the sort of renaming of the entire space as Tom Lee Park that led to also the commissioning of a new statue commemorating Tom Lee.

- It is unusual, if you think about it, in the '50s to have a park named for a black person in the South.

And so it's such a gift to have Tom Lee's name on this because he really is a genuine hero who modeled courage and humanity and generosity.

- Tom Lee, in 1925, rescued 32 people who were capsized on the M.E.

Norman.

He did that as a selfless act.

This was a man in a small skiff who did not know how to swim himself, but it didn't stop him from going to the aid of his fellow man.

- He was on his way home and he saw the boat and he was like, "Wow, that boat sure is listing to the right, something's not right."

So he kept going on up the river, and based on the history of what was told, it's like he decided to take another look.

And he turned around and saw it happen.

And then there goes history.

- But it certainly speaks to his character that he saw that disaster unfolding and he made the decision to turn around.

- An instant decision.

- An instant decision.

- Even seeing it, knowing he couldn't swim, and the sacrifice was just there.

I believe in sacrifice.

- That sacrifice was enormous.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- It speaks to his character.

- Tom Lee, he was risking his life to save people who didn't look like him and probably on another given day wouldn't have treated him as the hero that he ended up being.

Others who represented Confederate service, people who rebelled against th e Union were being celebrated in statues in public places in spite of the fact that those statues weren't welcomed there by the residents of the city.

So it's quite ironic that we are taking down the relics of the past while celebrating good examples of inclusiveness and leadership.

- I think it is so interesting how Memphis River Parks Partnership has really been very intentional about how it's razed, r-a-z-e-d, one statue while uplifting and raising Tom Lee's statue.

I think the importance of creating space that feels good for everyone, especially in a majority black city like Memphis, is of the ultimate importance.

And in an asset like a public park where you are able to move freely or to have an entire walkway that just winds to Tom Lee's statue and this beautiful sculpture by Theaster Gates, all of these are green flags of this park is for you.

This park honors your story, it honors your history.

[gentle music] [gentle music continues] [gentle music continues] [gentle music continues] - I think when you look at Theaster's work just in general and what he does and the concept of his work, I thought it was a fantastic choice to get Theaster Gates to do something on the riverfront, basically because he's more about repurposing, rebirthing neighborhoods, but this is an opportunity for him to work outside of that space.

And for me, he was a fantastic choice.

- When I think about the Tom Lee story, I find myself reminded of all of these historical truths when black people were called to be temporary superheroes of an American destiny.

In this case, you have Tom Lee, who himself at a disadvantage against the water.

An accident happens, and several, many people, thirty-two people find themselves in the water drowning, with the potential to drown, it's actually a black guy who can't swim.

And that kind of everyday heroic activity felt like the truth, the truth of black people in America, that there were these tiny gestures that would happen that would save lives, that would allow unexpected things to happen.

That would be small miracles.

And I think Tom Lee is compelling because he fits into that category of the black American superhero for me.

One of the real joys of this project has been my role is that of an artist.

But because I've been working with a design team that's so competent, sophisticated, and whose values align so well with mine, I feel like I'm actually part of a team, and they've allowed me permission to think about topography, sight lines, the importance of elevation.

Not only the materials necessary for my work of art, but I feel very much like I've been integrated into the design team, so that's been amazing.

But also as I start to kind of think about what the sculpture will be, I think they're also curious about how they can create an environment whereby the sculpture is doing the best that it can.

So it's very rare that I have an opportunity to partner with such an amazing team.

I feel quite fortunate and I feel like this is maybe a way that I want to work in the future.

- How were the design teams chosen?

We turned to a firm, Studio Gang.

They said, "Yes, we're interested.

And oh, by the way," and then they proceeded to show me all the work they had done, even a decade ago, they did this major study on the Mississippi Flyway.

So they had relevant work, they had relevant research and really understood the ri verfront not in just one piece or that piece, but as a whole.

Then they could do a piece of the riverfront, I thought, understanding how it fits, no rth and south, east and west.

Because the riverfront is not important in its discreet pieces.

It's important as a connected asset to downtown and to Memphis and to the region.

- Tom Lee Park, originally it was a very, it was a built landscape really for flood protection, but it was not trees growing there.

There was the memorial to Tom Lee, but it was really an underutilized space on the riverfront.

- It was behind a levee, and ac tually underneath the surface of the park there was urban fill.

So it was very compacted over many, many years.

It was a very large, flat lawn, but I guess I would say wasn't inviting for year-round activity.

As it was, we really saw this great opportunity to bring in topography and movement and really break what is a long, linear 30-acre park into sort of a series of smaller outdoor rooms that are really engaging and really invite people in to do many activities.

- It was also kind of inaccessible in a certain way because there's a big bluff on the one side and there were no accessible connections there and you could enter it from either end.

So it was just hard for people to get to the park.

And one of the aspects of the design is really to increase the accessibility to the park.

[hip-hop beat] - Now we have a public space that everyone in the entire city could come and access, multiple entry points.

We have an ADA access point for the first time from the core of the city.

And it's meant to be that way.

What's so majestic about the riverfront is it literally sits on a floodplain that truly acts as a natural park.

And if you have literally a national wonder that's the floodplain and only a certain amount of people can see it, it didn't really seem equitable.

There's so much we can do leveraging the park, the tourism, and the access that it provides to be more equitable to every neighborhood in Memphis.

- The Memphis community was very involved in the design of the park.

We heard from them in so many different ways, especially during your master plan phase.

And then even since then, we had open houses here down by the riverfront and just got incredible amount of comments and feedback about what people would like to see here.

A lot of the key elements that you'll see, whether it's the habitat trails or the play area, these all surfaced during that community process.

- So why don't you talk a little bit about or explain a little bit about the pieces within this are?

- Yeah, so I thought what was really cool was the way this is laid out.

I didn't even see this when we started building this, but basically you start with the smaller kids and you basically work your way to the adult fitness equipment.

And each one is a lobe, a section that you play on.

And what's also really cool about it is the accessibility to it, which was really thought through.

- A project this large has many people that are involved with it, all the way from those who sit around the table in the design development phase to those who are actually planting the plants in the fields and in the grasses and the lawns and landscaping beds.

One of the things that we concentrated on as we were selecting vendors were if they were a minority vendor, and we're very proud to say that we have completed this park and 44% use of minority vendors, which is a record for sure within the Memphis area and probably within the United States as well.

- Equity as it relates to Tom Lee Park was paramount.

From the very beginning, the important piece was that all people in the city of Memphis, no matter your zip code, no matter your socioeconomic status, no matter what you believe this park could be used for, was used for, and will in the future be used for, that there was a space for everyone to enjoy.

[uplifting music] [water flowing gently] [uplifting music continues] [water flowing gently] [uplifting music continues] [water flowing gently] - This grand reopening of Tom Lee Park is intentional in many ways.

There's something different happening on the river.

There's something big that I need to be a part of based on the life of one man, frankly.

And a man that's legacy should inspire us to do good things.

One of the big things that we wanna have happen is that folks come and see how this park can be their park.

[upbeat hip-hop music] - Tom Lee Park is officially reopened!

[crowd cheers and applauds] [upbeat hip-hop music] [upbeat hip-hop music continues] - I've never done a project as rewarding as this project because this is like Memphis, this is the best river in the world, the Mississippi.

The history of the people, the desire to have a place like this where everyone can come together and everyone is welcome, it was so strong here.

I think it was transformative for me.

I've worked all over the world and this is like my favorite project.

- Well, being here in the park and seeing the project completed is, it's really fulfilling.

When trying to figure out like, wh at should my monument be, I decided it should be like an anti monument, and that instead of it just being a celebration of a hero, which Tom Lee is, it should be the preservation of ideals that Tom Lee aspired to, which is like, how do we look at humans as our brothers and sisters?

And when they're in trouble, we help them.

- I like to make work that's optimistic.

And so I felt that it was an appropriate title, called it Democratic Experiment, and that it's colorful and it's optimistic and I think the general public will be thrilled to come here and play and entertain and talk and relax and that kind of thing.

- And there's so much to be excited about.

The playground in particular, the water pad that will have lighting and misting, to walk under and over bridges, to play in the Sunset Canopy, to really take in the river in an all new way.

- The story of Tom Lee is the story of a fight for the recognition not only in name, but the right to play, the right to be, the right to be present with others, the right to sing, the right to walk, to jog, to basketball.

The right to be a whole human in your place where you felt in the past that it was not your right.

And I want Tom Lee, at the end of this project, I want people to feel, not just in name, but I want them to feel like, "This park was made for me."

[inspirational piano music] [inspirational piano music continues] [inspirational piano music continues] [music ends] [upbeat hip-hop music] [upbeat hip-hop music continues] [upbeat hip-hop music continues] [upbeat hip-hop music continues] - "This love is for Tom Lee Park.

"So let's park our love.

"Let's mark our love.

"Here, folks run, walk, march for love, "exchange vows as they embark on love.

"Carve their names in the bark with a heart "to signify their love.

"Here in Tom Lee Park, families reunion "while they cha-cha slide.

"Little ones put on helmets and knee pads "as they learn to bike ride.

"Babies take first steps, athletes train "as they get in their reps. "The kids run and play 'til they run out of breath.

"Adults come here to take a deep breath, to think, meditate.

"Tom Lee Park lets you breathe.

"We cool off under a blanket of leaves.

"Wisdom is whispered through the breath of the trees.

"We're soothed by the winds of a filter breeze.

"Here we preserve a peace.

"This is a sacred place.

"But the question is, how did we get here?

"You see, heroes aren't born every day.

"It takes a certain individual "to find a certain level of bravery.

"What would you do if you found yourself "in a bad place at the right time?

"A time where fate meets circumstance, "when the choices you make and the extinction of a life "do a very delicate dance.

"Again all odds, imagine holding someone's life in your hand.

"That precious moment when it could all be over.

"Over on the Mississippi, May 8, 1925, "72 passengers left Memphis to take a steamboat ride.

"Later that day, the vicious power of the river's current "caused that boat to capsize.

"72 lives were at stake.

"Meanwhile, a man named Tom Lee happened "to be at work that day.

"He captained his little riverboat called the Zev.

"He was a black man living in the South, "so he knew he needed to be pushing ahead, "which is what he did.

"Until he saw trouble in the water.

"In a moment's "notice, off he sped "to help those who were troubled in the water.

"Those children, those mothers, those fathers, "who happened to be all white, but Tom Lee saw life.

"Although he couldn't swim, Tom Lee did what was right.

"Like a knight he charged in to those "who were helplessly draped in the cold, muddy, "merciless bath, many who couldn't fight "the river's wrath.

"Panic and weariness caused some to sink "while others tried using the debris from the boat "as a raft as they desperately gasped for air.

"Hands stretched out from the water "as they desperately tried to grasp the air.

"But one by one Tom Lee appeared "as he brought comfort to their fear.

"Back and forth, back and forth, "he went from the shore to the river.

"After one boat load was delivered, "he rushed back in to battle the pull of the river.

"He pulled, she pulled, he pulled, she pulled.

"For some time, this tug of war raged on.

"But because of his bravery, his heroics, "his willingness to risk his own life, "32 lives made it on to Tom Lee's little riverboat.

"When the steamer failed them, he kept 32 lives afloat.

"He gave 32 lives hope, relief.

"He gave them all a second chance.

"He gave them all a second chance.

"Against all odds and barriers, "he held their lives in his hand.

"The legend of that day quickly swept across the land.

"The selfless act of this black man, brave deeds "that caused President Coolidge to call him a real hero.

"Tom Lee is a real hero who did the impossible "while living in impossible times.

"Tom Lee is a real Memphis hero "who will be remembered throughout time, "remembered every time we visit.

"Remember this park, every time we visit this park.

"A park that breeds life into the community like the love that pours from Tom Lee's precious heart."