“The Middle Passage may be the great repressed signifier of American historical consciousness. But for all our willingness to acknowledge this tremendous gap within our thought, we hear the waters of the slave trade's history everywhere lapping at our shores; in our arts the ancient songs of the dead reverberate endlessly.”   —Critic Aldon L. Nielsen in Writing Between the Lines: Race and Intertextuality

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                February 25, 2000

                                                                                                                                                                                                For More Information:

                                                                                                                                                                                                Amy Ruth

                                                                                                                                                                                                (757) 221-2628

 

 

Monuments Of The Black Atlantic Conference Scheduled For May 24-28 in Williamsburg, Va.

(Williamsburg, VA) – An international conference that will explore the Atlantic slave trade and ultimately expand current knowledge and understanding of Africans in the Diaspora will convene in Williamsburg May 24-28, 2000. Organized as part of the Middle Passage Project at the College of William and Mary, “Monuments of the Black Atlantic: History, Memory, Politics” will examine interdisciplinary scholarly and popular topics ranging from the history of the slave trade to African and Caribbean writers, storytelling and the oral tradition, Afro-Hispanic literature, dance and gesture, religion and spirituality, black identity formation, and the development of independent African political thought.

Featured speakers include distinguished historian Genevieve Fabre of the University of Paris, renowned artist Tom Feelings, award-winning filmmaker Joseph Opala, historian Philip Morgan, Madeline Burnside, curator of The Henrietta Marie: A Slaveship Speaks, and many other eminent scholars,  professionals , writers, performers and artists.

Scheduled panel and lecture topics include:

-          “Making Memory: Tourism and Museums in the African Diaspora,”

-          “Survivors of the Middle Passage: Autobiographical Accounts”

-          “Virtual Monuments on African America: Culture, Memory, and Politics”

-          “African Diasporic Dimensions of ‘Scat’”

    “Monuments of the Black Atlantic: History, Memory and Politics” is cosponsored by the Middle Passage Project of the College of William and Mary and the Collegium of African American Research (CAAR) an organization of European scholars based in Germany, with assistance from the Hampton University Museum, the Reves Center for International Studies, the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. The four day conference will also feature several workshops for school teachers, receptions and other special events at several locations of interest. Conference registration is $95 and $75 for CAAR members. For more information, email MIDPAS@wm.edu or call (757) 221-1316. Information and a registration form are also available online at www.wm.edu\mid-pass.

The Middle Passage Project is funded by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy. The conference is organized by William and Mary Professor of English Joanne M. Braxton, who is also the director of the Middle Passage Project.

 

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