Located on the grounds of the Museum of the National Center for Afro-American Artists, Eternal Presence is an eight foot-high bronze head of an African-American person deep in meditation. This work commemorates 350 years of African-American presence in Massachusetts. It also fulfills the lifelong wish of its sculptor, John Wilson, to give African-American people greater visibility in American works of art. According to some descriptions of the piece, it illustrates the human race’s African origins and the abiding creativity and spiritual sensitivity of the world’s people of color. These may be the very thoughts that the oversized figure is reflecting on. But trying to specify the figure’s thoughts must not be allowed to detract from the face’s mystery, the true secret of its appeal.