This episode of Monument Lab features activist Patricia Okoumou, widely known as the woman who climbed the Statue of Liberty on July 4, 2018. Okoumou ascended the base of the statue as a direct action against the Trump Administration’s harsh and inhumane tactics of family separation at the US-Mexico border.
This episode of Monument Lab features activist Patricia Okoumou, widely known as the woman who climbed the Statue of Liberty on July 4, 2018. Okoumou ascended the base of the statue as a direct action against the Trump Administration’s harsh and inhumane tactics of family separation at the US-Mexico border. Okoumou will be sentenced on charges of trespassing, disorderly conduct, and interference with agency functions. In the days before her sentencing, we spoke with Okoumou from Staten Island. She offered detailed accounts of her time on the monument, her time spent recently near the US-Mexico border, and her climbs on other symbols of power — the Eiffel Tower and the headquarters of a For-Profit Immigrant Detention Center operator in Austin Texas. She also shared glimpses into her broader struggle to end family separation.