Dedicated in 1871 to honor Rhode Island soldiers killed in the Civil War, our Soldiers and Sailors Monument was one of the first to represent the Black soldiers killed during the war, specifically the 14th Rhode Island Regiment Heavy Artillery. The forty-foot monument is hard to miss, but many people have probably only viewed it […]
(2.20) Don’t miss “The Randall Ashe Story: Celebrating a Rhode Island Legend in Honor of Black History Month,” the next installment in the ‘Wonders of the Wurlitzer’ series at PPAC. The show is free and open to the public, and Mr. Ashe himself will be present. From his birth in Providence in 1940, to being
Head over to Providence City Hall for the new exhibit: “This Sacred Charge:” Rhode Island Emancipators of Color on the Battlefield & Homefront, 1775 to 1865. This assemblage of photographs, tintypes, documents, and news items explores the agency of African Americans in their struggle for freedom from the American Revolution until the end of the
“This man should be known!” Jazz composer, pianist, doctor, author, and native son, Rudolph Fisher, is the most extraordinary black American man no one has heard of, and Ray Rickman intends to fix that. On Thursday, Rickman and fellow Stages of Freedom co-founder Robb Dimmick, spoke at the opening of Rudolph Fisher: Rhode Island’s Gift
There is nothing wrong with your basketball court . . . do not attempt to adjust the picture.* Artist Sanford Biggers based his design for the Ninth Street Courts on the quilting patterns which have been inspiring his work over the past decade: Sanford’s interest in specifically African American quilting traditions has been an inroad
(6.19) Head over to Farm Fresh Wednesday afternoon to celebrate and experience the culinary heritage of the African diaspora, including the American south, Haiti, and Jamaica. Gail Ciampa writes in the ProJo: The more than two dozen local vendors will include the Empanada Assassin, with her primarily gluten-free empanadas; Ja Patty, with their Jamaican patties
(6.19) This year’s presentation of “From Free to Freedom: A Juneteenth Celebration” has been moved to 7pm, but it will still feature great music, backed up by the Mighty Wurlitzer, and once again it is free and open to the public. Mixed Magic Theatre, RI Black Storytellers, and Juneteenth RI have crafted a play with
The new exhibition at the RISD Museum, featuring the work of one of the first known women of color to graduate from RISD, opens Saturday and will run through August 2, 2024. Born in 1890 in Rhode Island to a Narragansett father and a Black mother, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet completed her degree in 1918 with
(2.4) What better way to kick off Black History Month than with the 29th Annual Langston Hughes Poetry Reading this Sunday in the Farish Auditorium at the Providence Public Library. Readings will be supported with music from Courtland Club regulars, the Leland Baker Trio. This year’s poetry reading will focus on Hughes’s life as a
(1.15) The Providence Children’s Museum will present two performances of “MLK: Amazing Grace” on Martin Luther King Jr. day. The calendar lists two sessions: 9:30pm to 12:30pm and 1:30pm to 4:30pm. Award winning storytellers Rochel Coleman and Valerie Tutson bring history to life in this interactive play for kids celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. and
(7.22) Tickets are still available for ‘African Americans on College Hill’ a walking tour with historian Ray Rickman. The tour leaves from the Stages of Freedom Museum this Saturday morning. Explore Providence’s oldest neighborhood and the African Americans who lived there with Rhode Island’s foremost expert, Ray Rickman. Many left an indelible mark on not
Just a reminder that Stages of Freedom, the state’s only African American Museum and Bookshop, is right downtown on lower Westminster Street by the river. And, as the sign in the window says, “All for a good cause.” That would be the Swim Empowerment program which provides free swim lessons for low-income BIPOC youth. But
Located on the RIC campus, the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society is dedicated to the preservation of artifacts — books, art, pamphlets, letters, images, and any other historical material — relating to the history of the Black community in Rhode Island, and the telling of the story of the descendants of the African Diaspora. There
Erected in 1769, the Old Brick Schoolhouse made history in 1828 when it became a public school for pupils of color, known then as the Meeting Street Grammar School. And it was a Black woman, Elizabeth Howland Smith, nee Brown, whose rigorous educational standards as teacher and principal brought honor to both the school and
(2.2) The Congdon Street Baptist Church will be hosting a screening of the PBS film Becoming Frederick Douglass: Discover how a man born into slavery became one the nation’s most influential leaders. Presented by Stages of Freedom in conjunction with Rhode Island PBS, the video screenings will be followed by a discussion: Lee Blake of
(9.18) Fans of the gargoyles and oracles they have consulted at WaterFire may not be aware of the wide range of figures that TEN31 Productions is capable of mounting. But nobody is going to ask a bowler to predict the future; you need a sibyl! For something different, head down to the river this Sunday