The Curators on International Slavery series February 20 & 21, 2014 is cosponsored by the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities & Cultural Heritage, the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice and the John Carter Brown Library. Events are free and open to the public, RSVPs are required for Friday's sessions- please see below for links.
Thursday February 20, 2014
2:30-4:30 PM: Panel Discussion: Presenting the History of Slavery: Three Approaches
John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities & Cultural Heritage
357 Benefit Street (please use rear entrance on Williams Street)
Join the leaders of three historical organizations for a discussion of the representation of slavery in recent exhibits and public programs and the impact of those initiatives on visitors, staff, and mission. Panelists include Morgan Grefe(Executive Director, Rhode Island Historical Society), Kristin Gallas (Director of Interpretation Projects, Tracing Center) and Louise Mirrer (President and CEO of the New York Historical Society).
Discussion will be moderated by Steve Lubar, Director, John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities.
This panel is part of a wider meeting of Curators on International Slavery, co sponsored by the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice and the John Carter Brown Library.
5:00-6:30 Exhibit: The Other Revolution: Haiti, 1789-1804
John Carter Brown Library
94 George Street
The Haitian Revolution was an event of world-historical proportions, but still remains the least understood of the three great democratic revolutions that transformed the Atlantic world in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Through books, pamphlets, maps, and prints of the period, all drawn from the collection of the John Carter Brown Library, The Other Revolution: Haiti 1789-1804, provides a running narrative of the major turning points, key personalities, and most significant themes of what was also the world's only successful slave revolt.
6:30 PM Artist Talk: Edouard Duval Carrié
Smith Buonanno 106
95 Cushing Street
In conjunction with The Other Revolution: Haiti 1789-1804, Haitian born artist Edouard Duval-Carrié will give a lecture about his work, following a week's residency at the John Carter Brown Library, and in preparation for a longer residency and exhibition to be hosted by the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice in May 2014.
About the artist: Edouard Duval-Carrié was born in Haiti, and raised in several countries, including Puerto Rico and Canada. He was educated at McGill University and at the Ecole nationale supérieure des beaux arts in Paris, and has traveled to the ancestral home of Haitian Vodou, the Republic of Benin. Although his work shows a cosmopolitan diversity, Haiti remains his major inspiration. In a variety of media and “visual concoctions,” he grapples with the disasters that have beset Haiti throughout her history, and the disaster that Haiti represents for many today. His work explores the genesis of the island nation, and the suffering that brought the society of slaves and masters to ebullition in the Haitian Revolution. He is equally inspired by the recent migration of hundreds of thousands of Haitians to the US, and the associations of Haitians with a pathology that he renders as an aesthetically gorgeous bacterial pattern. Throughout his work Duval-Carrié never loses sight of the fabulous world of spirits. “Loas,” “Esprits” or “Mystères” all convey a sense of foreboding inspiring the nebulousness from whence they came. Duval-Carrié’s widely exhibited work has been catalogued in six books and is featured in numerous permanent collections including the Miami Museum of Art and the Musée des Art Africains et Oceaniens.
Friday February 21, 2014
10:00am-1:00pm Roundtable discussion: Curating Slavery, Archives, & History
This roundtable will explore individual’s experience working projects related to the history and exhibition of slavery. We are asking each person to come prepared to speak for 15 minutes about a particular project, which the group will discuss.
Speakers:
Malick W. Ghachem, Associate Professor of History at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Roquinaldo Ferreira, Associate Professor History Department & Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, Brown University
Nancy Bercaw, Curator, National Museum of African American History & Culture
Anna-Karina Caudevilla, Secretary General in Charge of International Relations, Les Anneaux de la Mémoire
Facilitated by Anthony Bogues, Director Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University
RSVP for the AM session is required: Register HERE.
(1:00-2:30 PM Meeting break)
2:30-5:00pm Roundtable discussion: History/Histories and the Production of Knowledge
In this roundtable discussion speakers will discuss how as historians they have engaged with the making of exhibitions and public history. Here the questions will be: What is the relationship between history and exhibitions? What kinds of histories are produced by formal historians and are these alternative or different histories produced by the exhibitions? What is the relationship between the two?
Speakers:
Jean-Marc Masseaut Shackles of Memory (Nantes)
Alejandro de la Fuente, Director, Institute of Afro-Latin American Studies, Harvard University
Paul Gardullo Curator, African Slave Wrecks project, National Museum of African American History & Culture
Wayne Modest, Head of the Curatorial Department, Tropenmuseum (Amsterdam)
Facilitated by: Neil Safier, director of the John Carter Brown Library.
RSVP for the PM session is required: Register HERE.