Equal Justice Initiative:

Freedom Monument sculpture Park

108 Death Masks: A communal Prayer for Peace and Justice

Dedicated to the 6 Million lives lost in enslavement in the United States

In 2022, commissioned by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), Nikesha Breeze reimagined their monumental ceramic work in West African Bronze. The artist took the 108 ceramic Death Masks to Ghana, West Africa, symbolically returning the spirits of the ancestors across the Atlantic to the African Continent. Working for four months with Master Bronze caster and mentor Ibrahim Allagi Issaka, Nikesha handcrafted all 108 Death Masks using traditional African bronze-making techniques. Utilizing natural materials like beeswax, donkey dung, termite clay, and sand, the artist replicated the 108 Death Masks in bronze, ensuring their permanence and maintaining the integrity, knowledge, and cultural preservation of the ancestors.