“Hear the Lone Whistle Moan” / “copacetic” (1991 / 2018)

“Hear the Lone Whistle Moan” / “copacetic” (1991 / 2018)

AP African American Studies Guide

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Topic 3.11

Alison Saar, “Hear the Lone Whistle Moan” (1991) and “copacetic” (2018)

Hear...: A color photograph of an outdoor train platform with, at center, a wrought-iron sculpture of a man in a suit and hat holding a suitcase.


Hear the Lone Whistle Moan (1991) © Alison Saar, Metro-North Harlem–125 St. Commissioned by MTA Arts & Design. Photo: Rob Wilson.

copacetic: A four-part colorful glass mosaic: at far left, a Black woman wearing a pink dress with white trim and a flower in her hair playing the piano; near left, a Black man wearing a black suit, white shirt and bow-tie, and black top hat with white hat band, singing into a microphone; at near right, a Black woman in a pink dress with flames coming out of her right hand; and at far right, a blue-skinned man with blond hair wearing a white jacket and shirt with a black bowtie and red cummerbund playing a


copacetic (2018) © Alison Saar, Metro-North Harlem–125 St. Commissioned by MTA Arts & Design. Photo: Anthony Verde.

Saar’s original piece for the station, “Hear the Lone Whistle Moan” (1991), features a series of bronze relief sculptures on the north and south platforms of the station. The title refers to a spiritual that uses the train as a metaphor for the passage to heaven. Trains have often been associated by African Americans with escape, and the Underground Railroad in particular.

In 2018, as part of station improvement, Saar expanded her original project and created “copacetic,” a panoramic scene of imagined dancers, singers, musicians, and patrons enjoying Harlem’s heyday of the 1930s and ’40s. The glass artwork was created from the artist’s original woodcut prints, in homage to artists such as Elizabeth Catlett, Hale Woodruff, and Aaron Douglas. Learn more about these pieces and view more photographs on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority website.