Mikayla Harden, Pat Wilson Pheanious, and Liz Lightfoot
Stopping to Witness History: How Micro-Monuments Inspire Human Connection
What does it mean to remember someone history forgot? Physical markers — plaques, monuments, and public art installations — offer powerful opportunities to reconnect communities with the past. The staff of Stopping Stones (stoppingstones.org), a national public art and education initiative, share their experience creating commemorations at sites of enslavement, labor, and worship across the country. In this session, they explore how honoring forgotten lives in stone and steel can restore the humanity of enslaved Americans and open unexpected pathways to racial healing today.
Mikayla Harden, MA, holds degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Delaware and is currently completing her doctorate at the University of Delaware, where her research focuses on the lives of enslaved Black children in 18th-century New York. Before joining Historic New England, she served as a leadership consultant with a Black maternal health organization, where she advanced equity-driven initiatives.
Pat Wilson Pheanious, JD, MSSW, a Connecticut native, social worker and attorney, has served as Commissioner of Social Services and as a State Representative (2018–2021). In 2017, research by the founder of the Witness Stones Project uncovered five generations of her enslaved ancestors, reshaping her life and inspiring her leadership. She became the Project’s founding Board Chair in 2019 and Executive Director in 2024. Pat now leads the Stopping Stone’s national effort to engage communities in recovering history and honoring enslaved people, like her own ancestors, who built America and fought for its freedom before securing their own.
Liz Lightfoot is a Connecticut resident who serves as School and Youth Program Manager at Stopping Stones. She came to Historic New England from the Witness Stones Project, where, as operations manager, she worked with schools and community groups to restore the history and honor the humanity of enslaved individuals who helped build their communities. At Stopping Stones, she continues to use the Witness Stones Project’s award-winning curriculum to help others engage in deep explorations of historical records with a goal of remembering and celebrating individuals their community had forgotten. A journalist-turned-educator, Liz has spent her career working for news organizations, schools, and non-profits. The Witness Stones curriculum speaks to her two greatest interests: bringing to light unknown or no longer remembered stories and engaging students in meaningful, hands-on learning that enables them to see the world, and their role in it, in new ways. Liz has a bachelor’s degree from Harvard in English and American Literature and a masters in Journalism from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
