Symposium | Slave Pasts in the Present: Narrating Slavery through the Arts, Technology, and Tourism

Over the past few years, slavery has become a frequent theme in contemporary culture. Even though the topic has always been central in countries such as Brazil and the United States, it seems we have been watching more movies, soap operas and tv series on slavery than ever. Tourists are visiting historical sites and engaging in tours on the history and memory of the slave trade all over the Atlantic world. Crowds are packing museums on African-American culture. Slavery is represented in dance in popular festivals such as Rio’s carnival.

Not surprisingly, slavery is a topic as sensitive as it is trendy. Video games and children’s books are provoking discussions among school-age parents. Movies are becoming public controversies. And the discussions over memorials and statues that deal with the slave past set the stage for political protests all over the United States.

This symposium aims to discuss the ways in which slavery is narrated in the tourism and entertainment industries.

10 am – 10:30 am Coffee

10:30 am – 1:00 pm Slavery, Heritage and Tourism

Chair: Barbara Weinstein (NYU)

Monica Lima (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro): Talking about the History of Slavery Visiting a Site of Sensitive Memory: the Case of Valongo Wharf in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Keila Grinberg (Andrés Bello Visiting Professor, NYU and UNIRIO): Slavery and the Challenges of Tourism of Memory in Brazil

Alissandra Cummings (University of West Indies, Barbados): The Absence of Presence: Resurrecting the “Ghost of Slavery” in 21st Century Caribbean/Barbados

Paul Gardullo (National Museum of African American History and Culture): Meanings of Memory: Building Community Stewardship around the history of the slave trade in Mozambique and South Africa

Discussant: Daryle Williams (University of Maryland)

1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Lunch

2:30 pm – 5:30 pm Slavery, Storytelling and Entertainment

Chair: Ada Ferrer (NYU)

Paula Halperin (SUNY: Purchase College): Domestic Space, Intimacy, and Historical Imagination in the Brazilian Soap Opera Escrava Isaura (1976)

Brenda Romero (Limerick University): The New World: A Look at Slavery in Games

Lisa Woolfork (University of Virginia): _Deliberate Remembering and Willful Forgetting: Approaches to American Slavery in Popular Culture_

Ashraf Rushdy (Wesleyan University): Underground and Overseas: Recent Developments in Contemporary Narratives of Slavery

Martha Abreu (Universidade Federal Fluminense): Narratives about Slavery in Brazilian Samba and Carnival

Discussant: Yuko Miki (Fordham University)

Reception to follow.