Performing the Past: On Location 2023 Scrapbook

Arrival at College of Charleston, our base for the first portion of OL23, Charleston, SC

Our group, fresh off the airport shuttle, looking to get into the building, contemplating roommates, where we might eat, and so on!

Historic Mosquito Beach

Tobeya exploring oyster beds at Mosquito Beach, a historic district of Black self-determination and leisure. For decades, Gullah Geechee people have gathered here to share food, music, and fellowship.

Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture

Our group was joined by Dr. Bernard Powers (top left), professor emeritus of history at the College of Charleston and director of the Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston, at a special workshop at the Avery Center. Manager of Archival Services, Aaisha Haykal, helped us all consider how archival research can offer insight into the history of Black Charleston.

Middleton Place: UnReconstructed Plantation Tourism

This was a hard day for many in our group. We knew that we needed to visit a plantation tourism site in order to understand the performance of the racial past that proliferates through this region. While Middleton seemed to be making some attempts to reckon with its history of racial violence and enslavement, it also still wants to hang on to the grandeur of the “Old” South — an impossible contradiction.

McLeod Plantation Historic Site, James Island, SC

On a tour learning of the troubling history and legacy of slavery at McLeod Plantation, and how former plantations like these have been adapted over time to cater to the ideologies and politics of tourists. Under the direction of Charleston County Parks & Recreation, the  McLeod Plantation  Historic Site has become one of the few former plantations in the country that center the experiences and accounts of the enslaved.

Hobcaw Barony and Baruch Marine Science, Georgetown, SC

Professor Bill Strosnider, Director of the Baruch Marine Field Laboratory at Belle W. Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences facilitated our reflection on the intertwined social and environmental history, present and future of Hobcaw Barony, a former site of enslavement.

Gullah Museum, Georgetown, SC

A Gullah Museum volunteer shows Paige a quilt made by local Gullah residents in honor of First Lady Michelle Obama, whose great-great-grandfather, Jim Robinson, was enslaved at the nearby Friendfield Plantation.

International African American Museum, Gadsden's Wharf, Charleston, SC

While the celebrated International African American Museum was not yet open to the public, we were fortunate enough to get a “sneak peek” of this remarkable museum on a special tour organized by Dr. Bernard Powers.

"Celebrating Black Mermaids: From Africa to America," City Gallery, Charleston, SC

While much of our On Location experience was planned we also stumbled upon many richly informative experiences, including this art exhibition in Charleston, the opening of which was marked with a procession to the sea.

Remembering the Combahee Ferry Raid

A small historical marker near the Harriett Tubman Bridge commemorates the Combahee Ferry Raid of June 2, 1863, where Harriet Tubman and 150 African American Union soldiers rescued more than 700 enslaved men, women and children near this site on the Combahee River. Seeking a more embodied remembrance of this Civil War triumph, a contingent of our group braved the alligator infested river to commemorate the Combahee Ferry Raid via kayak. We also reflected on the Black Feminist intervention of the Combahee River Collective more than a century later, preserving and honoring this legacy.

Sullivans Island

Sullivan's Island is the most significant port related to the enslavement of African people in North America. It is estimated that at least half of all African Americans have ancestors who passed through Sullivan's Island.

The Penn Center, St. Helena Island, SC

The first school for formerly enslaved people in the South, the Penn Center has a long history as a school, grassroots organizing hub, and community center.

A day at Hunting Island State Beach, St. Helena Island, SC

We made time to rest and enjoy each other’s company at Hunting Island State Beach, where Julie Dash’s 1991 film Daughters of the Dust was filmed. Our group had watched Daughters of the Dust in our meeting room at College of Charleston library just a few days before. After returning to St. Louis we learned that Hunting Island was one of few U.S. state parks to provide access to African Americans in the Jim Crow period, in a  segregated area in the northern part of the beach . More about parks as "landscapes of exclusion," freedom-seeking, and Black place-making below.

First African Baptist Church, Savannah, GA

Our group joined a tour of First African Baptist Church, where we learned about its history as the oldest continuous Black church in North America, and station on the Underground Railroad.