Join our free seminar series this summer.

Our first event is “Bristol, Newport and the Transatlantic Slave Trade“, presented by Dr. Catherine Zipf on Thursday, June 27, 2024, at 6 pm at the Newport Public Library in the Friends Room on the bottom floor.

Other events are scheduled as follows.

Recipients of THRIVE award.

Newport Middle Passage Project was awarded a $,5000 grant from the state of Rhode Island, administered through the R.I. Humanities THRIVE program, given to organizations that “support and strengthen Rhode Island’s many diverse, dynamic communities.”

Victoria Johnson, co-chair of the Newport Middle Passage Port Marker Project, accepted the award for the organization.

The awards were presented at the Rhode Island State House on May 23, 2024. Secretary of State Gregg Amore and Speaker of the House Joe Shekarchi made remarks.

RI Humanities Executive Director Elizabeth Francis noted, “Through the THRIVE program, we are thrilled to award these inaugural general operating support grants to small organizations that preserve and activate our many cultures, heritages, places, and stories in rural and urban communities across the state.”

The Newport Middle Passage Port Marker Project announces its summer activities for the public.

Thursday, June 29, 6:30 pm

Cambridge Taylor & Newport’s Slave Revolt

presented by Michael Simpson
Newport Public Library, 300 Spring St., Newport, RI

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Thursday, July 27, 6:30 pm

Before Brooklyn: The Unsung Heroes Who Helped Break Baseball’s Color Barrier

presented by Ted Reinstein

Redwood Library & Atheneum, 50 Bellevue Ave., Newport, RI

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Monday, August 28, 6:30 pm

The Sound of Freedom

presented by Dr. Michael Browner

Newport Historical Society, 82 Touro St., Newport, RI

The Newport Middle Passage Port Marker Project announces its summer activities for the public.

June 18 12 pm Liberty Sq, Farewell & Marlborough St.	Liberty Square Design Presentation Julian Bonder & Maryann Thompson, Architects Collaboration with Sankofa Community Connection
June 21 & 23 2 – 4 pm Florence Gray Senior Citizen Ctr 1 York St.	Newport Middle Passage Information Session Snacks, Drinks, Door Prize
June 25 12 pm Liberty Sq, Farewell & Marlborough St.	Liberty Square Design Presentation Julian Bonder & Maryann Thompson, Architects
June 27 & 28 4 – 6 pm Newport Public Library 300 Spring St.	Newport Middle Passage Information Session
July 6 & 7 10 am – 12 pm Newport Historical 82 Touro St	Newport Middle Passage Information Session
August 11 4 pm Mumford Manor 39 Farewell St.	Quilt Artist – Veronica Mays
August 26 6 pm Zoom – see newportmiddlepassage.org	Heritage Journey from Fauquier, VA to Newport RI Victoria Johnson

Wednesday, September 8, 2021, at 6:00 PM EDT (Tickets available here)

Online event sponsored Seaman’s Church Institute and NMPPMP

For centuries, Rhode Island sent its young men to sea. As agriculture and slavery slowly declined, hundreds left the rural towns, many of them formerly enslaved African American and Indigenous men. They sought out opportunities in shipping and whaling as cooks, first mates, oarsmen, and boatsteerers. They crossed the bay, the Atlantic, and the world in pursuit of a livelihood that had eluded them at home. What they found were South Sea islands, arctic icescapes, wondrous sea creatures, warring tribes, hardship, and occasionally, opportunities for stunning achievement.

Peter Fay is a public historian and board member of the Jamestown Historical Society. He researches, writes, and lectures about Rhode Island history. He also is currently helping develop a public memorial to recognize the role of Newport in the history of the slave trade.

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.