“Sites of Remaking: Port Cities and Our Present”

Simmons Center, 94 Waterman Street, Providence, RI

Exhibition gallery open hours. The exhibition explores themes of freedom-making, resistance, place-making and the legacies of slavery through works by three Rhode Island-based multi-disciplinary artists: Jazzmen Lee-Johnson, Kia Lenise and Spencer Evans.

Commemorating Contentious Port Histories

Debra Lee Keynote Panel

John Hay Library, Room 303, 20 Prospect Street, Providence, RI

This conversation explores the contested legacies of historic port cities and their entanglement with the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Focusing on Newport, Rhode Island in the United States and Liverpool in the UK, the discussion brings together perspectives from public history and contemporary museum practice. de Barros Gomes, Legg, and Brown consider how institutions confront the histories and legacies of racial slavery, engage communities, and reinterpret port-city heritage.

Introductory Remarks

• Michelle Charters, Director of the International Slavery Museum

Panelists

• Akeia de Barros Gomes, Inaugural Director of the Newport Historical Society’s Black History Center
• Helen Legg, Director of Tate Liverpool
• Maxine Brown, Engagement Producer at the International Slavery Museum

Co-Moderators

• Richard Benjamin, Director of the Centre for the Study of International Slavery at the University of Liverpool
• Anthony Bogues, Director of the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice at Brown University

“This is my land, which you have got from me!”: The burning of God’s Providence

Storytelling Indigenous Resistance Performance

Prospect Terrace Park, 60 Congdon St, Providence, RI

This session explores the burning of Providence and reimagines the meanings and legacies of the fire three and a half centuries after it was set.

Featuring

• Thawn Harris, Simmons Center 2025 Reimagining New England Histories Artist in Residence
• Mack Scott, Brown University

Welcome

• Anthony Bogues, Director of the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice at Brown University

Exploring Contested Histories and Memories of Ports

• Carine Harmand, Tate Liverpool
• Hannah Cusworth and Maya Wassell-Smith, Royal Museums Greenwich
• Louis Nelson, University of Virginia
• Emily Hirsch, Brown University
• Timothy Walker, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth

Moderated by Ivie Orobaton, A.M. Candidate in Public Humanities, Brown University

Working Inside/Outside Institutions: Local and Grassroots Approaches

• Lyndsey Beutin, McMaster University
• Hannah Francis, University of Rhode Island
• Miranda Cuozzo, Brown University
• Leona Vaughn and Khalil R West, University of Liverpool
• Samuel Okyere, University of Bristol

Moderated by Elena Shih, Associate Professor of American Studies, Brown University

Theorizing With/Against the Politics of Commemoration

• Marsha Hall, Stonybrook University
• Pilar Jefferson, UC Berkeley
• Monaye Johnson, Brown University
• Stephan Brigidi, Bristol Middle Passage Port Marker Project

Moderated by Christopher Roberts, Schiller Family Assistant Professor in Race in Art and Design, RISD 

New England Port Histories

• Naomi Slipp, New Bedford Whaling Museum
• Max Huibregtse, New York University
• Florence Blackwell, Brown University
• Traci Picard, Center for Reflective History
• Barbara Ward and JerriAnne Boggis, Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire

Moderated by Elysa Engelman, Director of Research and Scholarship at Mystic Seaport Museum

Closing Conversations

• Anthony Bogues, Director of the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice, Brown University
• Melaine Ferdinand-King, African American Museum of Rhode Island
• Alexander Scott, Project Curator, International Slavery Museum

Final Remarks

• Elena Shih, Associate Professor of American Studies, Brown University