The North Carolina African American Heritage Commission (NCAAHC) is hosting a series of community information sessions for its Africa to Carolina initiative. Since 2018, this initiative has served to identify, acknowledge, and mark each site in the state where enslaved Africans disembarked directly from the African continent.
Join us for a conversation as we share information about this history and how it is being recognized and help us to explore how public art can be used to commemorate those persons who disembarked on North Carolina’s coast. These sessions are part of a community-engaged process shape public art memorials to one of North Carolina’s most obscured histories.
- Saturday, Nov. 12, 11 a.m., St. Stephen AME Church, 501 Red Cross St., Wilmington, NC 28401
- Saturday, Nov. 12, 4 p.m., Navassa Community Center, 338 Main St., Navassa, NC 28451
- Monday, Nov. 21, 6 p.m., NC History Center at Tryon Palace, Cullman Performance Hall, 529 S Front St., New Bern, NC 28562
- Monday, Dec. 12, 6 p.m., Vernon James Research Center, Conference Room C, 207 Research Station Rd., Plymouth, NC 27962
For registration and additional information, visit NCAAHC’s website or email directly.
This work is being completed as part of a $5,000 planning grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation (ZSR). The planning grant is one of 20 awarded statewide, which will be used for community engagement and to move toward submitting full proposals for a potential inclusive public art installation.
ZSR’s Inclusive Public Art initiative, which is part of ZSR’s Exploratory, Visionary Ideas Strategy, addresses three main issues the Foundation identified after a statewide listening and learning tour: North Carolinians desire deeper connection with one another; issues of race and racism are not openly discussed in many communities; and the demographics of North Carolina’s communities continue to rapidly change.
ZSR is partnering with the Mellon Foundation in this Inclusive Public Art initiative. For more information, please visit: Inclusive Public Art | Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation (zsr.org).
By Michelle Walker