December 2010 newsletter
Posted December 16th, 2010 by James DeWolf Perry
Here is our first newsletter:
Video of dialogue in Bermuda
Posted December 15th, 2010 by James DeWolf Perry
In April, our executive director, Katrina Browne, was invited to Bermuda to screen Traces of the Trade and to facilitate dialogues on the history and legacy of slavery and the slave trade.
The following video, “Discussing the Trade,” was created by local filmmaker Alex Dill at one of these dialogues. In October, this video aired on local television in Bermuda, along with daily broadcasts of Traces of the Trade, as part of follow-up programming organized by the Tracing Center and Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda (CURB).
Traces of the Trade in Bermuda: Big Watch and Big Read
Posted December 9th, 2010 by Marga Varea
Photo credit: Michelle Dismont-Frazzoni
In April, Katrina Browne, executive director of the Tracing Center and producer/director/writer of Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North, was invited to Bermuda by the anti-racism organization Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda (CURB) to present the film and speak to high school students and community members about her journey and our work around racial justice and reconciliation.
The dialogues in Bermuda deeply moved hundreds of people and a short video, Discussing the Trade, was created by local filmmaker Alex Dill to record the impact of our visit. You can see the video here.
Photo credit: Michelle Dismont-Frazzoni
Traces wins “Best in Festival” at International Film Festival South Africa
Posted December 6th, 2010 by Christie Gibson
Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North has won an award, for “Best in Festival,” at the Nov. 1-5, 2010 International Film Festival South Africa in Kwa Zulu Natal.
Traces of the Trade was directed by our executive director, Katrina Browne, with co-directors Alla Kovgan and Jude Ray.
What you didn’t learn in history class
Posted December 3rd, 2010 by Kristin Gallas
South Carolina’s “Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union,” adopted by the state legislature on December 24, 1860, mentions the word “slave” 18 times. The following passage (emphasis added) from the document clearly makes the case for secession due to the fact that the Federal Government encroached on their rights to own slaves.
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President’s House in Philadelphia
Posted November 29th, 2010 by Kristin Gallas
This December, the Independence National Historical Park (INHP) opens its new exhibit at the President’s House – site of the residence of George Washington and John Adams while the capital was in Philadelphia.
The exhibit, which consists of a partial reconstruction of the house along with text panels, features information about how Presidents George Washington and John Adams lived and conducted their executive branch business. Washington brought some of his slaves to this site and they lived and toiled with other members of his household during the years that our first president was guiding the experimental development of the young nation toward modern, republican government. The lives of the enslaved members of Washington’s household are commemorated at the site.
Last spring, the committee leading the exhibit development afforded Tracing Center staff the great honor of commenting on the final draft of the exhibit text. Tracing Center staff also conducted a training session about the history of slavery in the North for INHP Interpretive Rangers and staff. For more information visit Independence National Historical Park’s President’s House website.
Dominicans, traces, and race
Posted November 25th, 2010 by Katrina Browne
Juanita Brown, the co-producer of Traces of the Trade, and I were invited to screen Traces as part of FUNGLODE’s Dominican Republic Global Film Festival… a truly special film festival that I can’t say enough good things about.
Our visit to the country was sponsored by the U.S. embassy there, to whom we are very grateful!!! It was an incredible chance to test again, after going to Cuba, how the Spanish-subtitled version of the film does or does not resonate for people in former Spanish colonies that were built on a slave-based economy.
Teacher Workshops in Rhode Island
Posted November 22nd, 2010 by Kristin Gallas
This fall the Tracing Center presented a series of special workshops for Rhode Island educators on the role of the North in slavery.
The history of Rhode Island’s complicity in slavery and the slave trade has been missing from the state’s classrooms for generations. The Rhode Island Department of Education mandated teaching about the state’s complicity in slavery/slave trade in its Grade Span Expectations (teaching standards) in 2008. Some teachers don’t know the history, other teachers are aware of the historical information, but are unsure how to teach it. The workshops covered content knowledge about Rhode Island’s complicity in slavery and the slave trade, as well as tools for how to effectively and sensitively teach the subject matter to students of all backgrounds. Through our training in content and pedagogy and the written resources provided for them, they returned to their classroom better equipped to teach about slavery and its legacies.
“Traces of the Trade” in the Dominican Republic
Posted November 18th, 2010 by James DeWolf Perry
Our executive director, Katrina Browne, and consultant Juanita Brown are in the Dominican Republic this week at the invitation of the U.S. embassy in Santo Domingo to present “Traces of the Trade” and participate in panel discussions and programs about the history and legacy of slavery and the slave trade.
“Tras las Huellas de Mis Ancestros: La Historia Oculta de Nueva Inglaterra,” the Spanish-subtitled version of the film, is screening at the 4th Dominican Global Film Festival (DRGFF). Katrina Browne is the director and producer of the documentary, and Juanita Brown is a co-producer.
In the picture above, Katrina and Juanita are meeting Leonel Fernandez, the president of the Dominican Republic (second from right) and actor Randi Acton at the festival’s opening reception in Santo Domingo last night.
Best Practices in Teaching Slavery: a Growing Network of Educators
Posted November 10th, 2010 by Katrina Browne
I had the amazing opportunity to be part of a working group conference, Defining New Approaches for Teaching the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery: Teaching African History and African Diaspora History Workshop. The workshop was hosted by the Harriet Tubman Institute at York University in Toronto and sponsored by the U.N.’s UNESCO Slave Route Project. It was attended by educators, psychologists and historians from Latin America, Central America, the Caribbean, the U.S., Canada, Africa and Europe. We were applying ourselves to the question: what are the psychological consequences of slavery for descendants of enslaved Africans and descendants of the “white” populations that benefited from slavery? And in the face of those multi-generational consequences, what are the implications for how we teach about slavery and African civilization in schools.
At the Tracing Center, we have heard again and again from African-American adults about intensely negative, even traumatic, experiences of being taught about slavery in middle school and high school. The common refrain is teachers who did not have the sensitivity and knowledge to teach this loaded history in a way that was empowering and provided dignity. We know too that European-American students and students of many other backgrounds get the wrong message when slavery isn’t taught well. This is a key moment when students will either be set up for rifts and divisions based on heritage, or it can be a golden opportunity to set them up for incredible grace and understanding and sense of common cause in the work of building a society that works for everyone. Our teacher workshops this fall in Rhode Island and for Christian educators via Calvin College in Michigan, were a chance to refine and share our pedagogical models for creating positive results.
The workshop in Toronto, with reports of how text books in Central America portray slavery, to how the Taubira law in France is impacting the teaching of slavery, to how U.S., British, and French psychologists are working with clients in black communities to frame their challenges in the context of post-traumatic slavery disorder or syndrome, to how these concepts are faring in the academic field of psychology, etc., etc. – the workshop raised up how daunting the challenges are, but how hopeful it is that kindred colleagues are working in similar veins and are now in a better position to collaborate on moving the work forward in all our countries.
