 Hello, everyone, and welcome to RISE, Collaboration and Learning with International Trust Sites of Enslaved Men. Thank you so much for joining us today. Today, we're going to be talking about this exciting new collaboration known as RISE. So for anyone who joined us last year at Passport, you may have heard a little bit about this, but this will be your first time to fully get introduced to this exciting new program. So RISE means Reimagining International Sites of Enslaved Men, and it's a knowledge sharing program that brings together the leaders of historic sites with histories of slavery, slave trading, and in many cases, African self-emancipation efforts from around the Atlantic for critically needed professional development opportunities. RISE members were nominated to participate by one of four major cultural heritage and preservation organizations. They are the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States, the National Park Service, the Trustees of the Reservation, and the International Trust Organization, otherwise known as INTO. My name is Ilan Cookley, and I'm the Director of Interpretation and Education at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. And I was able to help to start convening these sessions with my colleague, Alex, at INTO, starting in 2021. So starting in the spring of 2022, the spring of this year, RISE participants had the wonderful opportunity to apply for funding to travel abroad in order to participate in professional development and knowledge sharing opportunities at a fellow RISE member site. So today we will actually be introducing you all to leaders from three of those RISE member sites who have come together for a really wonderful new collaboration. Those member sites are Fort Monroe in Virginia, a National Park Service site, the National Trust James Madison Montpelier, James Madison's Montpelier also in Virginia in the United States, and the International Trust Organization member St. Ruscha National Trust. And two of their staff had the wonderful chance to come and visit up in Virginia today. So I am going to introduce our panelists and they are going to share with us a little bit of information about their respective historic sites. First up, we have Elizabeth Hsu, who is an art historian. She holds a BA from a bachelor's from Yale and a master's from the Courtauld Institute at the University of London and a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At Montpelier, she has overseen projects to complete the furnishing of the Madison House and to return slavery to the plantation landscape, you know, back where it always should have been. This includes the exhibition, The Mere Distinction of Color, and which is a winner of six national awards. She has also taught art history at the University of Virginia, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, James Madison University, Wake Forest University and Davidson College. Anne has published and lectured widely on ways that art and architectural patronage relates to race, gender, and family politics. She currently serves as the interim president and chief executive officer at James Madison's Montpelier. Take it away, Elizabeth. So as Elon mentioned, I am from James Madison's Montpelier, which is in a small rural community called Orange, Virginia, about 90 miles south of Washington, D.C. Montpelier was the plantation of three generations of the family of President James Madison, the father of the U.S. Constitution. And it is where his family earned their wealth and status from the labor of over 300 men, women, and children that they held in slavery. This is a map that shows you the state of Virginia, the highlighted part is the Piedmont region where we are, just over the fall line. The orange shape is the county that we're in called Orange County, and Montpelier is the pink star. So we're in sort of central Virginia in the Piedmont region. This was settled by migrating tobacco planters from the Piedwater beginning in the 1730s when President Madison's grandparents established the plantation. The famous people, the presidential sites, belonging to a prominent person. These are James and Daly Madison portraits by Gilbert Stewart. Madison's known, as I said, as the father of the Constitution in Daly Madison as the inventor of the role of First Lady as we still understand it today. So Montpelier has, in the last seven years, done extensive archeological examination, documentary research, architectural study, and we have excavated and reconstructed six buildings right next to the main house. Created an exhibition. We're now working on a home farm site to the right off this slide. Montpelier is known in the field of historic plantation for the work that we've been doing for over 30 years with the descendants of those who were enslaved here. And in 2019, the descendants created their own organization, which is a separate 501c3, which is a so equal organization to the Montpelier Foundation, which operates Montpelier in post-richif with the National Trust. And in just this past May, just two months ago, the Montpelier Foundation Board and the Montpelier Descendants Committee, the organization, created a relationship of structural parity at the board level. So this is the first site where the descendants of the inflated have shared equally in the governing of the sites. And we're now working on that structural parity at the staff level. So we have long prided ourselves on our balanced narrative of the American Founding Era. We refer to what we talk about here as whole truth history. Thank you so much, Elizabeth. And I hope for everyone out there who is watching that as you are listening to all of the presentations that you please feel free to start putting your questions in the chat box for our wonderful presenters. Next, we have the host of this particular collaboration and that would be Yola Dance, who is an interdisciplinary public historian. She holds a bachelor's in history from Southern University A&M College, a master's in historic preservation from Savannah College of Art and Design and a certificate in environmental policy as a National Park Service Fellow from the George Washington University. She currently is a PhD candidate at Howard University studying 17th century slavery in US history and the African diaspora. Yola's research has focused on descendant community engagement, climate change adaptation and the management of cultural resources in the Chesapeake Bay region. She's currently the superintendent at Fort Monroe National Monument, which is where several of our participants are coming from today. Thank you, go ahead, Yola. All right, well, first just a huge thanks to the Rise Working Group for making it possible for us to be here together at Fort Monroe as we commemorate African landing this weekend. And so I'll talk briefly just about an overview of Fort Monroe. And then I look forward to getting into the conversation. So we can go to the next slide. Fort Monroe National Monument was established in 2011 by presidential proclamation. It was the first of the National Park Units established by President Barack Obama using the Antiquities Act. So in contrast to legislation, this particular park unit was created by the president of the United States. And so as Elizabeth showed you the state of Virginia, we are the small little backwards Nike check at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. And this becomes really important when you think of all periods of time. So Native American inhabitants, English settlement through 2011 and the deactivation of Fort Monroe as an active army base. And you can go to the next slide. We actually were established based on a number of periods of significance. As I mentioned in the proclamation, we actually are significant based on the inhabitants of the Kikotan peoples at the time of contact with English settlers. So as Captain John Smith and others arrived in 1607, their first interactions were with the Kikotan right here on the land known today as Fort Monroe in present day Hampton, Virginia. This particular place was named by Captain John Smith Point Comfort. And so as you learn about the over 400 years of African-American life and history, 1619 is an event that took place here at Fort Monroe at Point Comfort. And you can actually visit the place where the history happened. What is also really important about Fort Monroe is that you were able to learn about the evolution of slavery. And between that 1619 event and the end of the Civil War, you actually have the 1861 contraband decision. At that time, you have three men, Baker, Townsend and Mallory, who arrive here and ask refuge during the American Civil War in our granted asylum. And that triggers a series of legislative actions that results in freedom seekers finding refuge, the United States colored troop being established, as well as some of the language for the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment are all tied to these events. And so we refer to that particular history as the arc of freedom. So 1619 to 1865. What's so important about that is it creates the opportunity for us to have conversation, both nationally and globally. And we earned inclusion in the UNESCO sites of memory, of the Atlantic Slave Trade Program. And if you go to the next slide, we are also one of the many sites that interprets the Underground Railroad. And so this particular slide that we see really focuses on engaging communities where history happened. And a big part of what we've done is actually shifted emphasis. And so most people would have heard of Fort Monroe as the place where Jefferson Davis was imprisoned during or immediately following the American Civil War and many of the historical markers and memorials here are focused on Confederate history. But if you go to the next slide, the work that we have been doing around enslavement, resistance and freedom has helped us to expand that narrative, not to dismiss it or not discuss it but to really focus on it properly and include the histories of others. And so we are a national Underground Railroad Network to Freedom site as well, which is a national park service program that documents facilities, programs and events of freedom seeking, not only in the US, but abroad. And so it's an incredible opportunity here at Fort Monroe to connect and especially to connect with our colleagues. Thank you. Thank you so much, Yola. I'm sure when we get into the Q&A, we'll be talking a lot about the concept of freedom seekers and how exciting that is for historic sites to be bringing more attention to that particular experience. And now I am happy to welcome Winston Fulgents, who will be introducing our third partner site today. Winston is a historical anthropologist. He holds a BA in history from the University of the West Indies, which is one of the most beautiful college campuses I've ever seen. And he has a master's in anthropology from the University of Florida. He completed a PhD in archeology at the University of York in the United Kingdom, where his thesis was a comparative study of monuments to commemorate slavery in the regions involved in transatlantic slavery and the slave trade. He has published several journal articles and book chapters on the role of history, cultural heritage, heritage management, and is currently the president of the St. Lucia Archeological and Historical Society. And he is the Dean of Academic Affairs and head of the social sciences at the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College in St. Lucia. I would also like to quickly introduce Winston's colleague, Finola Jennings-Clark, who is the Business Development and PR Manager at St. Lucia National Trust. She will be joining us for today's conversation. And Winston, you can take it away. Thank you. It's wonderful introduction. The site that we're focusing on is One Fortune. It's an old font. It's a rather large site. I think it's one of the largest sites that a National Trust manages. And the importance of this site is that it is a military site. Currently it's occupied by my college, at St. Lucia Community College, but a lot of the site still remains undeveloped. The issue with the site is that it is part of a meta-narrative. So first slide you're looking at here. Ruins of One Fortune. When people visit the site, they see the ruins or the architecture of old European military buildings. But there's a lot more to the site because the interpretation as European thought continues to meta-narrative on European's. The site is a site in a country that is predominantly African descent, but that conversation never occurs when we visit different aspects of the site. Next slide, please. Okay, another example of interpretation. This is an old British cemetery where officers, governors, and so on are buried. And so on are buried. The obelisk in the middle of it speaks to, well, actually imposes the European ideology, layout, and so on on the specific site. When you visit the site, you speak of the English. Next slide, please. This one is a little different and it connects us directly to slavery. Why? Let's do this differently. This one is going to go up to 1945 because this monument was actually installed in 1930s. It is actually a monument, an obelisk, to memorialize the in-skilling monument, in-skilling regiment, an Irish regiment, which actually won a battle in 1796 on this specific site. This battle ended what was called Second Brigham War in which enslaved Africans had freed themselves for almost four years. The island was important strategically, military strategically for the British. So they came in with 12,000 troops to invade the island and take over. The enslaved Africans understood that if the fought became, the island became a British island once again, it would, they would be in re-enslave. So they fought and valiantly for about six months. But in May of 1796, the battle was lost, the war was lost and in-skilling regiment became victorious. The reason I'm bringing this obelisk monument up is because the monument installs the memory of the European actors and colonizers on the space because when you visit the monument, it says nothing about the people who had been defeated and the people who became re-enslaved when this battle actually ended. So we're looking at trying to reinterpret the site to ensure that history of formerly enslaved Africans who fought valiantly to maintain their freedom is actually part of the interpretation of the site. Thank you. Thank you so much, Winston. I'm really excited for us to start digging into a little bit more about these sites. So my first question for everybody, can you talk a little bit about how your site engages with descendants of slavery? So that can include locals, black diaspora tourists from all around the world, or individuals who are direct descendants from the people who were enslaved at your historic site. Like a verse. So the stat that Montpelier has engaged with descendants of those enslaved here, not Montpelier itself, but also on adjoining plantations who are most of the time relative of those who were enslaved here since the early 1990s. And we have shared research resources and collaborated on many, many programs on restoration projects, interpretation projects, exhibition projects. And that was always a very ad hoc sort of extractive process where Montpelier staff were gaining information and knowledge from descendants. And then as I said earlier in 2019, the descendants created their own organization and just this last maybe created parody. So we've made what was an ad hoc relationship, we've made it one of structural parody. And this is made, what we do here, almost at the beginning of the site, so much richer and more authentic and more relatable and I think more responsible and worthy. And we don't define descendant as just someone who can prove that they have a DNA connection. Some people know their descent, most people do not, but know that their people were enslaved somewhere in this area. But we have had members who actually don't weren't enslaved anywhere near here but still resonate with what we're doing and want to be part of it. And they are welcome as well. You do not, anyone is welcome. Thank you, Elizabeth. So important, that's so important. And we actually ascribe to the definition of descendant community that your working group established as well and it has helped to define how today we engage descendant. And so we use the descendant engagement rubric in developing our partnerships. I have to also give a shout out to the National Trust and Robert Newig. As Fort Monroe was being established in 2011, there was a contraband or I believe the name that they might have used was like a refugee working group that was brought together to help define how we should engage and work with descendants which proved really important for organizations like the Contraband Historical Society who were the torch carriers before there was a national park unit. Some of whom were descendants, some were not but they came together in commitment around the history at a time when the understanding of Baker Townsend and Mallory and their arrival during the Civil War was thought to be a myth. So our work with descendants have been around documentation, preservation, how to tell the stories and how to commemorate which informed our work with Project 1619 founded by Calvin Hearson. And his work centered around helping people to understand the distinction between Point Comfort and Jamestown. Point Comfort being the official port to Jamestown but a very specific place where 20 and odd Africans landed in 1619. So there were historical markers that were updated based on the research his organization did including the marker here. He also worked to plan for the 400 year commemoration in 2019 and so there were state, city as well as national commissions ultimately that came together to do that work in coordination with descendants. And currently we're working on a memorial. Our state partners, the Fort Monroe Authority they are the lead on that project and we support with research and planning assistance. And this weekend we will be doing the blessing of the land and the Nansmen Indian nation is participating in that with us. So when we say descended we are actually talking about descendants of everyone on the landscape who were involved with one another and helped to shape America. Thank you. Anyone from our St. Lucia contingent wanna share anything? See, I could speak to the fact that when I mentioned the metanarrative which is very much European dominated. It's a large heritage site and consumption of that site is done mainly by European tourists, European and North American tourists of European descent. Engagement with an African descendant community is not one that is very, very large because the tourism market that we that actually comes to St. Lucia is not one that is very African American or like British in origin. So actually it means that the narrative continues and what's being consumed is basically what's comfortable to most people are actually engaging the sites. Thank you. Could I quickly add? Sure. So what might be interesting and I mean, we haven't discussed this but our tourism marketing organization is just establishing a diaspora marketing push and at the same time we're talking about community heritage tourism. So it might present an opportunity especially with the supportive organizations like these two that we're with today who have more experience for us to start to leverage that new tourism recognition because it's been there before but it hasn't been recognized and even in our tourism, we've had up to 35% arrivals of a stalwart tourism from the Caribbean region itself. And so if people know what the islands are like it's a long chain of islands which have things in common but we also are very distinct. So there is opportunity for tourism and there's opportunity for us to mold it in more healthy ways and then what we have at the moment which tends to commodify everything as something to be consumed in a very surface way or tourism largely by people who look like me and have my origin. Thank you, Vanola. I know if we had more time in this session I think all three of your sites could really dig into the ways in which your sites has had to change in the last maybe the last couple of years or maybe the last even a few months as you're kind of shifting your interest in engaging with maybe mainly white visitors, white American or European visitors to how do we bring in more African descendants of visitors or indigenous visitors to our particular sites? What do we need to change in the marketing or the interpretation? So if we have more time I know we could like really get into that. I just have one last question before we get into the Q and A. If any of you would like to jump in and say something about your experience with the RISE program over the last year has there been any particular presentation from one of our working group meetings or a speaker or something that you've learned or something you would like to learn or gain from this collaboration this international collaboration called RISE? I have to say, I mean this is kind of embarrassing to admit but the attending these Zoom meetings with colleagues in the Caribbean, in Africa has really helped me put what we're doing in this little place in the middle of nowhere into this much larger international context African slave trade middle passage context and to broaden our interpretation to include that acknowledgement. And it's also in this kind of work so reaffirming to meet other colleagues who are doing similar things or way ahead in some ways, not so much in others but we have so much to learn and talking to each other. And I remember a presentation by a colleague in, I'm gonna blank on the country where Elmina Castle is. Oh, Ghana? Ghana, I'm so sorry. Someone from Ghana who's talking about those absolutely pivotal sites, I thought, oh my God, what we're doing here is obviously just an outcome of what horror started there. And that, I think that's a really wonderful thing for the field, even though we're talking about some of the worst things human beings ever did to one another. We do have a community and a shared experience in doing this and we can all really benefit but we can then teach our publics in a better way. Thank you. Yeah, we have maybe just one minute left if anyone else wants to jump in and share anything about RISE and then we'll go into the Q&A. Yeah, my thought is just that I echo Elizabeth's sentiments that there's this incredible opportunity to talk about our shared history, to look beyond the narrative of a slave story, but origins, how people contributed around the world to agriculture, economics, you name it. And then also most importantly, the opportunities for healing, healing at the individual community level, as well as across cultures and communities. And so RISE has created that space where we talk about language, we talk about connected stories. I mean, Elizabeth and I have been talking about James Madison and his connection to Fort Monroe. There's just so much that we can explore and that's, I mean, invaluable. Thank you, Yola.