Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project (MPCPMP)
Remembering Ancestors
To whom we say: We must forget, we must move forward. You must forget? Is forgetting the keyword to face the Unreal, the Ugly… A Pain alive in our collective brain… collective cells? Is forgetting sufficient for the bloody reality of the color of my skin? Is forgetting will forget the Un-Real, the Sur-Real of our Bloody wounds… Alive in the Atlantic Ocean Millions of voices Millions of Tears My Read More
Much of our activity during this quarter was connected to the 400th anniversary observances for the 1619 arrival of Africans in English Virginia. MPCPMP emphasized that the history of African arrival to America (1526 to 1860) is shared with 52 documented U.S. Middle Passage locations, and the Project encouraged each arrival site to conduct an event in 2019 to honor ancestors. From August 23-25, 2019, MPCPMP Executive Board members participated Read More
My roots are tangled…. A blend of black, white and red, I am labeled Creole, mulatto, mixed, colored in every sense. Enslaved by the ‘one-drop-rule’ But liberated by the truth That all blood is red. Betty Saar In her recently published book, Lose Your Mother, Saidiya Hartman narrates her experiences and thoughts related to finding one’s ethnic roots in Read More
Toni Morrison is being praised this week for her life’s work as an iconic Black American Woman author. At her passing, many have noted how the Nobel Prize winner chose to view the lives of Black people clearly beyond the “White gaze.” For those in the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project (MPCPMP), however, she directly inspired us to address the history of captive African ancestors who died in Read More
Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Project (MPCPMP) Newsletter: April – July 2019 So much has happened since the last MPCPMP newsletter. Our focus now is tying up loose ends and organizing data, photos, and archival materials related to the Project’s eight-year history. We are projecting a completion date of 2020 or 2021 when documented U.S. Middle Passage arrival locations will have conducted at least one ancestral remembrance ceremony and installed Read More
This year, as the nation attempts to address the history and experiences of Americans of African descent, the focus has been primarily on healing and commemoration. On June 19th, there was a call for a national day of healing and drumming, a scheduled Congressional hearing on reparations, and a rally to declare Juneteenth a national holiday. Later this summer, in August, activities are centered on marking the 400th anniversary of Read More
Recently someone wrote that the impact of struggles, challenges, and accomplishments associated with people of African descent over centuries in this land is what has defined and made America great. This idea goes far beyond the “Canary in the Mine” concept published in a previous blog post (December 18, 2011). The attribution is far greater than simply a measure of the national status quo. As a people deliberately and consistently Read More
This post is in response to the 2018 mid-term elections. Based on the results, citizens need to prepare for the 2020 national election to bring about change for the good of all. During a conversation several weeks ago with a young Florida activist, his phrase “2020 Vision” struck a chord. It’s not just about this current mid-term election; we need to see clearly that the electoral process and social activism Read More
Recently, we have been bombarded with news of government policies that enforced automatic separation of immigrant children from their parents who were seeking asylum at our Southern border. Defined by federal officials (ICE and Department of Justice) as entering the country illegally, the parents were detained (incarcerated) and the children placed in the “care” of the U.S. Department of Human Services. Although we are told that this practice has stopped, Read More
The MPCPMP has taken historical facts and made them into news headlines. Unfortunately, none of these headlines is followed by fake news or fabricated history. Instead, under each sensational headline, we present the truth — a brief historical fact or a description with background. Our intention is to capture the reader’s attention using the format of a tabloid. Headline Captions Two Million Die in Ocean This is the approximate number Read More