African-American Poetry Talk at Royall House Feb. 24th
On Wednesday, February 24, 2016, at 7:30 p.m., editors Erika DeSimone and Fidel Louis will give a book reading and talk on Voices Beyond Bondage: An Anthology of Verse by African-Americans of the 19th Century.
Slavery was not the only identity of 19th-century African Americans. Whether freeborn, self-liberated, or born in the years after the Emancipation, African Americans had a rich cultural heritage all their own, a heritage largely subsumed in popular history and collective memory by the atrocity of slavery.
Most early 19th century black-owned periodicals featured open calls for poetry, and African Americans, both free and enslaved, responded by submitting droves of poems for publication. Collected for the first time, the poems in Voices Beyond Bondage address the horrific and the mundane, the humorous and the ordinary and the extraordinary. These authors wrote with passion and dedication about slavery, but also about love, morality, politics, perseverance, and nature.
The event will be held at the Royall House and Slave Quarters at 15 George Street, Medford, and is free to Royall House and Slave Quarters members and to Medford high school students. General admission is $5. Copies of Voices Beyond Bondage will be available for purchase and signing at the event.
On-street parking is available, and the museum is located on the 96 and 101 MBTA bus routes. Please email director@RoyallHouse.org for more information or visit RoyallHouse.org. Find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
About the museum: In the eighteenth century, the Royall House and Slave Quarters was home to the largest slaveholding family in Massachusetts and the enslaved Africans who made their lavish way of life possible. Architecture, household items, and archaeological artifacts bear witness to the intertwined stories of wealth and bondage, set against the backdrop of America’s quest for independence. The Slave Quarters is the only remaining such structure in the northern United States, and the Royall House is among the finest colonial-era buildings in New England.
About the speakers: Erika DeSimone grew up in Medford, Massachusetts, and earned her undergraduate degree from Westfield State University. She is currently an editorial assistant at the Modern Language Association, where she has worked for more than a decade. Fidel Louis earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from New York University. He has written and edited articles for several publications, is a certified New York State Court interpreter, and works as a business consultant for private-sector and government projects.
– Submitted by Royall House Executive Director Tom Lincoln