I have serious news to pass on to everybodyWhat I’m about to sayCould mean the world’s disasterCould change your joy and laughter to tears and pain
… It’s thatLove’s in need of love todayDon’t delay
—Stevie Wonder, Loves in Need of Love Today
It was a cold afternoon Thursday as a crowd gathered at Eastern Market Metro Plaza to unveil “Loveful Hands”, the long-awaited public sculpture intended to anchor the community gathering space.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Delano Hunter, Director of the DC Department of General Services (DGS), opening the ceremony and thanking partners across city agencies and the neighborhood for their role in completing the project.
The installation is part of the city’s “percent for art” program, which Hunter described as “one of the largest… and most robust public art programs in the country,” commissioning dozens of works each year for schools, parks and public buildings.
Standing before the covered sculpture, Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen (D) asked attendees to consider how much the plaza has changed.
“A few years ago, the very space where we’re sitting… was a space that people wanted to walk through. They didn’t want to walk to,” Allen said.
Through a partnership that included DGS, the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR), the ANC and community groups, the site was redesigned as a “town square,” with public art envisioned as a central feature.
For months—indeed, years—that vision remained incomplete. The sculpture’s base stood empty.
“It bugged me that for a couple of years we just kind of had the pedestal, but we didn’t have the piece of art,” Allen said.
Artist Jay F. Coleman, a Ward 7 resident and former DCPS educator, said the project itself had a similarly long path.
“This has been definitely a labor of love,” Coleman told the crowd. He described the work as entirely hand-crafted and deeply personal.
“We sculpted this to scale, which means it was this size in my studio,” he said. “I didn’t just scan a picture of my hands and AI it,” he said. “This was done by hand. My son helped me.”
At one point, the finished piece sat idle. “It sat at the foundry for four years, collecting dust like a relic,” Coleman said.
The concept behind “Loveful Hands”, he said, was straightforward: to create a visible, emotional intervention in a busy public space. Coleman envisioned the sculpture coming into view as weary residents rode the metro to the plaza surface.
“The impetus behind this piece was to create a piece of love that people would see coming out of the metro,” Coleman said. “You might have a rough morning and you see this, and your day has turned around.”
DPR Director Thennie Freeman framed the sculpture in similar terms. It was she who referenced Stevie Wonder’s “Love’s in Need of Love Today” as she introduced the work.
“When you think about loveful and being full of love,” she said, “love is actually in need of love today,” Freeman said.
ANC Commissioner David Sobelsohn said the addition strengthens a neighborhood already defined by cultural institutions, placing the new piece among “DC artistic landmarks” that shape community identity.
Sandy Bellamy, representing the percent for art program, emphasized the broader role of public art in the city. “It’s like our silent love letter” to residents and visitors, she said, describing artworks placed “in our neighborhoods, in the nooks and crannies of DC.”
As the ceremony concluded, officials and the artist gathered to cut the ribbon and unveil the sculpture—which turned out to be wrapped in another layer of plastic protection. Together, they unwrapped it like the gift it is, finally filling the long-empty pedestal and completing a labor of love years in the making.
