What Do You Want To See At Derby Street Public Art Park In Salem?

SALEM, MA — Salem is looking for ideas on how to celebrate the life of Charlotte Forten at the Derby Street park dedicated in her name.

And the city is offering gift cards to some who share their thoughts.

The park is envisioned as a modern memorial and a "permanent piece of public art intended to provide the community with a sense of belonging and connectedness to the space, while also sharing information about who Charlotte Forten was and how we can continue to her living legacy."

Those who respond to the survey, and give their contact information, will be entered for a chance to win a $100 Market Basket gift certificate or one of four $25 gift cards to women-owned shops in the neighborhood.

The survey can be found here. The deadline to enter the drawing is May 31 at 11:59 p.m.

Forten was an anti-slavery activist, poet, and educator who is celebrated as the first African American woman to teach in Salem Public Schools.

In 1856, she became the first African-American to graduate from the Salem Normal School (Salem State University). Her first teaching position was at Eppes Grammar School in Salem in 1956, becoming the first African American hired to teach white students in a Salem public school.

This project is sponsored, in part, by the New England Foundation for the Arts' Collective Imaginings for Spatial Justice Grant and is being conducted in partnership with led artist and urban designer Mel Isidor, local artists Keshia de Leon and Claudia Paraschiv, The Point Neighborhood Association, The North Shore Community Development Coalition, and The Creative Collective among others.

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)