The Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice at Brown University, in partnership with the Tomaquag Museum, hosted a free 6-day Black & Indigenous Summer Institute (2023) for Rhode Island rising 10th–12th grade students (graduating 12th graders were eligible as well). The Summer Institute is designed within a restorative justice framework that centers self-reflection, critical thinking, and reading against the grain to reframe how we understand history and heal our communities. Students visited the Tomaquag Museum, the Mystic Seaport Museum, as well as other venues to uncover the hidden stories of Rhode Island’s communities of color. The week culminated with a celebratory visit to Martha’s Vineyard to visit the Aquinnah Cultural Center.

Program Objectives Included:

• Growth of student knowledge base of local Black, Indigenous and immigrant histories from the lens of historically oppressed groups
• Student reflection on themselves as learners and as representatives of historically impacted populations in joyful and affirming ways
• Development of leadership skills through hands-on group activities, discussions, direct action training, and opportunities to express themselves
• Student collaboration, forming deep and meaningful supportive relationships with each other, facilitators, and community members in order to build interdependent communities of care