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Atlantic Black Box

@atlanticblackbox

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empowering communities to research & reckon with New England's role in colonization and slavery

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Search terms: St. Domingue + Haiti + tambour (drum), + year range 1770-1800, in the ongoing journey to learn how a Black fiddler from those parts came to these shores and consequently shaped the music and dance culture of midcoast “Maine.” #MajorJackDouglass #JohnJackDouglass #DouglassReel

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Since March we have hosted hundreds at the @rocklandstrand for our Points North Presents screening series, and we even made it out to North Haven for a special island screening. It’s been a pleasure to hear your thoughts on the films and interest in this new year-round program. Here are some highlights from each of the screenings so far, with one more to come before the festival — Wild Inside, directed by Penny Lane, August 27 at 7pm — and more after CIFF. Info on those will be revealed soon — stay tuned!

Learn more about future screenings at the link in bio.

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I have been a small part of a working group with @atlanticblackbox where we are learning how to use AI and AR to take existing objects or scenes in our city and *add to them* to tell a more complete story. Here, I have added Jefferson Davis to a historic photo in Bath, the Sagadahock House Hotel (formerly on the NW corner of Front & Centre). Davis came to Maine in 1858 (doctor’s orders - get some fresh air!) and visited Bath, likely to help further business opportunities for his constituents. He was a US Senator representing Mississippi at the time, only three years later, the president of the Confederacy.

The Sagadahock House Hotel was built in 1849 and funded by Bath shipbuilders who were engaged in the cotton trade. The hotel would have provided an opulent setting for business meetings, celebrations, fraternal organizations, family events and more.

Just an experiment. A useful tool? What do you think?

Canva AI used to created the video.

Sources for images and some content:
https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/davis-jefferson-1808-1889/
https://www.mainememory.net/record/27924/image/27924

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As we count down the days to Art in the Wake II: Repairing, Healing and Memory, we look back to the first convening, Art in the Wake: Reckoning and Re-Membering in 2023.

Indigo Arts Alliance presented the inaugural symposium in partnership with the Center for the Study of Global Slavery at @nmaahc and @atlanticblackbox in Portland, ME. Over the course of two days, artists, scholars, and community members gathered to examine the profound role creative expression plays in uncovering buried histories of the African Diaspora.

Centered on reframing our collective understanding of Blackness across generations and geographies, the schedule of events provided a platform for participants to explore how art can be integrated with other forms of research and knowledge-making.

Presenters included Margaret Brown, Valnízia Bianchi (Māe Val), C. Daniel Dawson, Meadow Dibble, Paul Gardullo, Rachel Elizabeth Harding ’25 Mentorship AiR, Juana Alicia Ruíz Hernández, Alexandra James, Kate McMahon, Ed Johnetta Miller, Gabrielle Miller, IAA Co-Founders Daniel Minter & Marcia Minter, Chris Newell, Johanna Obenda, Meghna Singh ’23 Mentorship AiR, Nyugen E. Smith ’20 Mentorship AiR, Gary Tyler, and Clotilda Descendants, with lunch and dinner provided by Chef Jordan Benissan.

Swipe to see highlights from the 2023 gathering, and visit the link in our bio to learn more about the #ArtInTheWake series. 🔗
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Art in the Wake II: Repairing, Healing and Memory will take place on Saturday, February 28, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at the Museu da História e da Cultura Afro-Brasileira (@muhcab.rio). A livestream will be available at 8AM EST for those joining from afar via the link in our bio. 💻✨
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Image captions in the comments.

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Now on view! In Re|Sounding, our newest exhibition, we have committed to re-measuring our institutional understanding of Maine’s maritime history by centering Indigenous and Black perspectives.

The result is a vibrant, multimedia exhibition featuring recently uncovered archival documents that provide insight into undertold stories of the state’s Indigenous and Black maritime communities—celebrating resilience and tradition while shedding light on a global history of colonization and enslavement.

Alongside historic artifacts, the exhibition features work from contemporary Black and Wabanaki artists to deliberately invite dialogue on the ways history continues to shape the present, prompting visitors to imagine futures founded on equity and freedom.

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We had such an incredible weekend with our colleagues in the Castine History Partners and @atlanticblackbox ! On Saturday, we were privileged to host an incredible performance of The Malaga Ship by @antonio.rocha.storyteller at Emerson Hall, with talks by our Executive Director Kate McMahon and Penobscot Tribal Historian James Eric Francis, Sr., followed by a playback session with Erin Curren to process what we'd learned and seen.

On Sunday, over 100 people descended on our town for the Castine Walk for Historical and Ecological Recovery. This walk reinterpreted the Wabanaki and Black histories of Castine through the use of temporary signs that marked these sites. It culminated in a community weaving project on the lawn of the Wilson Museum, where participants weaved a community canoe. We were treated to an incredible performance by @firefly.the.hybrid and finished our day with a community meal donated by Castiners.

We'd like to thank all of the volunteers who made this weekend possible, and look forward to the ways in which we can collectively continue the momentum of this inspiring weekend!

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To our Exhibitor Sponsors we say "Thank you!" We're so grateful to have your support for our work! Show some love to @atlanticblackbox, @gardner.real.estate.group, Digital History Consulting (not linkable here, but you can find them at digitalhistoryconsulting.com or search for Justus Hillebrand on Linkedin), @industrialhistoryne, Vaughan Woods & Historic Homestead, and @yarmouthmehistory

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So joyful to play to @ahmadkafari’s entrancing bones accompaniment! 💜🦴 🪕 Thank you for having us, @atlanticblackbox! Grateful for your wonderful facilitation and organizing, @____dky____! #banjoandbones #romerobanjos #blackbanjo #banjo #clawhammerbanjo #oldtimebanjo #oldtime #juliannejohnson #blackbanjoreclamationproject #banjomusic #🪕

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Repost @atlanticblackbox Speaker series event: The Just History Project with Bill Grabin - https://mailchi.mp/atlanticblackbox/bountyarchive-14175565
On Wednesday, July 23 at 6:00 pm on zoom, Bill Grabin will describe some of the research that went into developing the Just History database and will highlight a number of stories about Wabanaki and Black residents of what are now the towns of Wells, Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, and Arundel in Maine.

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Please help us in congratulating this years Major Grants Awardees! We are so looking forward to these projects. Check them out!

Abbe Museum @abbemuseum
Atlantic Black Box @atlanticblackbox
Buck Memorial Library
Eastport Arts Center @eastportartscenter
Hardy Girls @hardygirlsmaine
The Hill Arts ME @thehillartsme
Indigo Arts Alliance @indigoartsalliance
Maine Maritime Museum @mainemaritimemuseum
OUT Maine @out_maine
Trans Poetics Archive @transcendencepoetryfestival
Safe Voices @safevoices
Shelflife Project
Wild Blueberry Heritage Center @wildblueberryheritagecenter

Congrats to all of our awardees!

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MCSS conference!🤍🩷
Go check out the @remedialherstory project, and the @atlanticblackbox !!

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Happy Black History Month! Our first Humanities Highlight is @atlanticblackbox for their work on the Kennebec Watershed Walk.

Supported by an Arts & Humanities Grant (between @artsinmaine and Maine Humanities), the program built on In Kinship’s Land Back Kennebec Audio Place Play and was developed through a summer residency at Vaughan Woods & Historic Homestead. The program included a self-guided house tour of the Vaughan homestead, including exhibits curated from the family archives that support learning about relationships between the Kennebec River and the transatlantic slave trade; discussion surrounding the tradition of Wabanaki guiding and the role of this practice in cultivating cross-cultural learning and respect for Indigenous sovereignty; a walk along portions of the trail network at Vaughan Woods that emphasizes group reflection and the questions “Why here? Why now?”; listening to excerpts of In Kinship’s performance work-in-progress: Land Back Kennebec: An Audio Place Play that illuminate connections between Wabanaki place names, settler-colonial and Wabanaki worldviews, and land relations; and a printed map of the Kennebec River and additional learning materials; dance, drumming, and song offered as an act of represencing by Penobscot songkeeper, vocalist, and composer Firefly @firefly.the.hybrid.

If this project inspires you, our next Arts & Humanities Grant application period is April 22, 2025 – May 20, 2025. Learn more on our website!

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