This Wednesday, May 7 Dr. Mishy Lesser (Upstander Project co-founder and Emmy Award winning researcher) and Kristine Malpica (Upstander Project researcher and public historian) will join the Atlantic Black Box community to discuss the research and realities behind Bounty, a short filmic testimony of the resistance and survivance of Wabanaki People of the Dawnland.
The Prince Project Database is Now Live
The Prince Project database, now live, contains information about over two thousand people who were enslaved, or descended from enslaved people, and lived here in Maine in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Old York Historical Society Event | Abolition and the Underground Railroad in Maine on 2/19
Mary T. Freeman explores the long history of slavery and emancipation in Maine, focusing on antislavery activism in the decades leading up to the Civil War.
Maine Conservation Voters Event | The Malaga Ship: Maine, the Global Slave Trade, and Healing Through Artistic Reclamations on 2/7
In this session, storyteller Antonio Rocha will be joined by Dr. Kate McMahon, Historian of Global Slavery at the Smithsonian African-American History Museum. Together, they will tell the story of the Malaga and reflect on the ways in which historians and artists can collaborate to create new forms of healing and justice through artistic creation.
Maine Historical Society Event | Black Salts: Black sailors in Maine and New England on 2/13
Cushing’s Point Museum director Seth Goldstein will discuss the fundamental role of African heritage sailors in regional history and will examine why the jobs of mariners and shore-related occupations such as longshoremen were important for individuals of African heritage.
LCHA Event | The “Help” from Hampton: In service at the Pownalborough Court House 1872-1892 on 2/27
Hosted by Lincoln County Historical Association With researcher James Tanzer February 27 @ 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm ESTOnline REGISTER HERE For 20 years, from 1872-1892, an aging Sallie and Captain Sam Goodwin, owners of the Pownalborough Court House in Dresden, Maine, relied heavily on the housekeeping and farm labor of four young Black workers from Hampton, Virginia: … Continue reading LCHA Event | The “Help” from Hampton: In service at the Pownalborough Court House 1872-1892 on 2/27
Maine Historical Society Event | A Plausible Man: The True Story of the Escaped Slave Who Inspired Uncle Tom’s Cabin on 1/23/24
Join author Susanna Ashton for a talk on her book A Plausible Man, a historical detective story of Jackson’s remarkable flight from slavery to freedom, his quest to liberate his enslaved family, and his emergence as an international advocate for abolition.
ABB Event | The Charter Generation: Enslavement of Native Americans in New England on 12/18/24
Join us next Wednesday as Dr. Margaret Ellen Newell of The Ohio State University's Department of History shares insights from her award-winning book Brethren by Nature: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of American Slavery.
ABB/WHERE Event: The Descendants Walk in York on 11/16/24
This Saturday, join us in experiencing the town of York in a new and powerful way—as the Descendants all of us are. We'll warm up over homemade soup and bread and watch a rending performance by Antonio Rocha that will open a discussion about what happened here, what each of us carries in our lineages, and what it all might mean for us today.
ABB Atlantic World Connections Event | Dr. Seth Rockman on Plantation Goods: A Material History of American Slavery 10/23
The industrializing North and the agricultural South—that’s how we have been taught to think about the United States in the early 19th century. But in doing so, we miss slavery’s long reach into small New England communities, just as we fail to see the role of Northern manufacturing in shaping the terrain of human bondage in the South. Join us Wednesday for an introduction to Dr. Rockman's forthcoming book.
Event | The Malaga Ship: A Story of Maine and the Middle Passage
On Friday, October 11th, at 7 pm in its historic sanctuary, First Parish Church will present award-winning storyteller Antonio Rocha in a performance of The Malaga Ship: A Story of Maine and the Middle Passage.
Radcliffe Event | Black Lead: The Radical Black Roots of New England Liberalism on 10/16/24
Kerri K. Greenidge’s new book complicates the idea—propagated by white nationalists and accepted as fact by most liberal-leaning historians, scholars, and commentators—that New England is a predominantly white space in which African descended people and their communities have had little political effect.
WHERE2024 Event : The Norridgewock Memory Walk, Hosted by Wabanaki REACH on 8/17/24
This August marks the 300th year since the brutal massacre of hundreds of Wabanaki / Abenaki women, children, and elders committed by a raiding party from York. Wabanaki REACH, in collaboration with Atlantic Black Box, invites your participation in a WHERE2024 walk to take place at the Historic Pines in Madison, Maine.
Jesup Library Event | Eden’s Other Sons: MDI Seafarers, Shipbuilders, and the Slavery-Based Economies of the West Indies Trade with Anna Durand on 8/8/24
Mount Desert Island’s shipbuilders, sea captains, and sailors hold a special place in our collective memory. Hardworking and self-reliant, these men (and occasionally their wives) created a living from the sea. But historical records also show that trading Maine-made products like salt cod and barrel staves for rum, sugar, and molasses brought MDI seafarers into economic partnership with the slave-holding plantations of the West Indies.
This Saturday: Join ABB & Partners for The Walk to Unsettle Portland
On Saturday, June 22, Atlantic Black Box and The Third Place’s EcoBIPOC Network invite you to join The Walk to Unsettle Portland, a daylong collective practice—at once physical, emotional, creative, and intellectual—in unsettling our understanding of this place by surfacing the suppressed stories of those who walked here before us. Please join us for all or part of the day.
ABB Event | Teaching Hard History: Past, Present, and Future on 6/13
An educator workshop and teacher-appreciation dinner with Dr. Hasan Kwame Jeffries of The Ohio State University, Dr. Kate Shuster of the Hard History Project, and longtime education leader Maureen Costello.
ABB Event | Marking the Memoryscape on 5/31/24
Hosted by Atlantic Black Box in partnership with Maine Black Community Development, The Third Place, First Parish Portland, & WHERE2024 Partners A community conversation and luncheon to discuss launching a Middle Passage Ceremony and Port Marker Project for Maine, with MPCPMP founder Ann Chinn and award-winning civil rights historian and activist Danita Mason-Hogans. Friday, May … Continue reading ABB Event | Marking the Memoryscape on 5/31/24
ABB Event | Healing the Wounds of Slavery on 5/30
On the 25th anniversary of the Interfaith Pilgrimage of the Middle Passage, founders Nobuntu Ingrid Askew and Sister Clare Carter will join Crossing the Waters Co-Director Dr. Sonji Johnson-Anderson and moderator June Thornton-Marsh for a screening of the documentary Rise Up and Call Their Names, which chronicles the extraordinary thirteen-month journey the founders led in 1998-1999 through the eastern United States, the Caribbean, Brazil, West Africa, and South Africa to reverse the direction of the Middle Passage symbolically and geographically.
SPACE Re-Site 2024 Events in Portland | site-specific, temporary public art and Portland history-telling
SPACE is a portland-based nonprofit organization that supports contemporary arts projects, champions artists, and encourages an open exchange of ideas. Learn more here about Re-Site 2024 SPACE is pleased to present Re-Site 2024, the second edition of the site-specific, temporary public art and Portland history-telling initiative first launched in 2020. This year’s iteration features artistic interpretation of … Continue reading SPACE Re-Site 2024 Events in Portland | site-specific, temporary public art and Portland history-telling
Two in-person events on Maine’s Black history May 4 hosted by Biddeford Saco SURJ & Westbrook Juneteenth Planning Committee
Biddeford Saco Black History Walking Tour Standing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) MAY 4, 2024 at 10:00 AM Led by: Delilah PouporeOrganization: Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)Duration: One hourLocation: 138 Main Street, Saco, Maine 04072Learn more Embark on a journey through Biddeford and Saco’s rich yet often overlooked Black history with our engaging Black History Walking Tour. Led … Continue reading Two in-person events on Maine’s Black history May 4 hosted by Biddeford Saco SURJ & Westbrook Juneteenth Planning Committee