The museum in South Carolina opens to the public on Tuesday.
Upon entering the space, eight large video screens play a looped trailer of a diasporic journey that spans centuries, from cultural roots on the African continent and the horrors of the Middle Passage to the regional and international legacies that spawned out of Africans' dispersal and migration across lands.
The program was emceed by award-winning actress and director Phylicia Rashad and included stirring appearances by poet Nikky Finney and the McIntosh County Shouters, who perform songs passed down by enslaved African Americans. Gadsden’s Wharf, a 2.3-acre waterfront plot where it’s estimated that up 45% of enslaved Africans brought to the United States in the late 18th and early 19th centuries walked, sets the tone for how the museum is experienced. The wharf was built by Revolutionary War figure Christopher Gadsden.
“There’s something incredibly significant about reclaiming a space that was once the landing point, the beginning of a horrific American journey for captured Africans,” said Malika Pryor, the museum’s chief learning and education officer. Pryor, formerly the educational director of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, said these types of museums focus on the underdiscussed, underengaged parts of the American story.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
At International African American Museum opening, a reclaiming of sacred ground for enslaved kinThe International African American Museum will soon open in Charleston, South Carolina, at one of the country’s most historically significant slave-trading ports
Read more »
At International African American Museum opening, a reclaiming of sacred ground for enslaved kinThe International African American Museum will soon open in Charleston, South Carolina, at one of the country’s most historically significant slave-trading ports.
Read more »
At International African American Museum opening, a reclaiming of sacred ground for enslaved kinThe International African American Museum will soon open in Charleston, South Carolina, at one of the country’s most historically significant slave-trading ports
Read more »
At International African American Museum opening, a reclaiming of sacred ground for enslaved kinWhen the International African American Museum opens to the public Tuesday in South Carolina, it becomes a new site of homecoming and pilgrimage for descendants of enslaved Africans whose arrival in the Western Hemisphere begins on the docks of the lowcountry coast.
Read more »
At International African American Museum opening, a reclaiming of sacred ground for enslaved kin - New York Amsterdam NewsWhen the International African American Museum opens to the public Tuesday in South Carolina, it becomes a new site of homecoming and pilgrimage for descendants of enslaved Africans whose arrival in the Western Hemisphere begins on the docks of the lowcountry coast.
Read more »
'Love of the board': Skateboard museum opens in SaskatoonSaskatoon\u0027s Bruce Tucker is launching a skateboard museum, aimed at reflecting the sport\u0027s history in the city.
Read more »