Month: July 2021

In this third online event of the Newport Middle Passage Summer 2021 Series, the Newport Middle Passage Port Marker Project presents Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes in an online event for the general public in collaboration with the Redwood Library and Atheneum of Newport on Wed., July 21, 2021, at 6 pm.

In this presentation, Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes will discuss how the dynamics underlying the gendered/raced/sexual relationships created under colonialism manifest themselves today. She will also explore how the perspectives of different eras of Black feminism, human rights, and sexual health add to the conversation. 

Reserve your place online here:

Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes is the Senior Curator of Maritime Social Histories at Mystic Seaport Museum and is a Visiting Scholar at the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University. She is responsible for working on curatorial projects of race, Indigenous histories, ethnicity, and diversity in New England’s Maritime activities. She leads a multi-disciplinary team to examine Mystic Seaport Museum’s and other regional collections to develop contemporary re-imaginings of people’s actions in the past and present and translating that into content relevant to today’s social environment. Akeia received her BA in anthropology/archaeology at Salve Regina University and her MA and PhD in anthropology/archaeology at the University of Connecticut.

Wed., July 7 at 6 PM online here

Next in the NMPPMP Summer 2021 Series will be two exceptional women who are engaged in creating and writing outstanding poetry on Wed., July 7 at 6 PM. Presented in partnership with the Newport Middle Passage Port Marker Project, poets Afia Ansong and Jacqueline Johnson will share their poetry and discuss their creative process. Through their work, they help us to question and explore themes of identity, transition, and belonging. The event is hosted online by the Redwood Library and Athenaeum.

Afia Ansong is a Ghanain American scholar and artist who writes poetry and teaches contemporary and traditional West African dance, she writes about the challenges of the African immigrant identity in the United States, exploring themes of transition, citizenship, and identity.

She is a 2015 and 2018 recipient of the Bronx Recognizes its Own Award Her work can be seen or is forthcoming in FOLIO, TAB, The Seventh Wave, PUBLIC POOL, Vinyl, Main Review, joINT, Frontier, and others.

Jacqueline Johnson is a multi-disciplinary artist creating poetry, fiction, and fiber arts, and is the winner of the Third Annual White Pine Press Poetry Award. Her work has appeared in: “Show Us Your Papers,” on Main Street Rag Press, 2020, “Revisiting the Elegy in the Black Lives Matter Era,” Routledge 2020, “About Place Journal”, the “Langston Hughes Review,” and The Slow Down, American Public Media, October 16, 2019. She is currently writing a novel, The Privilege of Memory, and How to Stop a Hurricane, a collection of short stories. She is a graduate of New York University and the City University of New York. A native of Philadelphia, PA., she resides in Brooklyn, New York.

The Newport Middle Passage Port Marker Project is a local nonprofit organization whose goal is to bring to light the full rich scope of Aquidneck Island’s history. We plan to place a memorial in Liberty Square to commemorate the lives of Africans brought to our shores through the Middle Passage and to honor their descendants who have contributed much to the growth of our city, our state, and our country.