Forgotten Souls of Tory Row: Remembering the Enslaved People of Brattle Street All are welcome to view the striking art installation on the front lawn of the Hooper-Lee-Nichols House from dawn to dusk. Now extended through April 7, 2023.
We engaged with Buckingham, Browne and Nichols Private School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to explore how the past influences the present in order to shape a better future. In November of 2022, sixty middle school children were given the opportunity to learn about the history of Tory Row and talk with the artists Pam Goncalves and Michael R. Thierry and researchers of History Cambridge led by Marieke Van Damme who came together to make this installation an effective learning tool. Many topics were discussed such as the African roots of the Bottle tree, its cultural connection to the Appalachian mountain cultures, glassmaking in Ancient North Africa and West Africa, the Revolutionary war and means of economic empowerment the Tories used through slave investments in the Caribe (Blanchard, Whittemore,
Vassal, Foxcroft, Brattle, Nichol's, et al). The religious and spiritual significance of the color blue in Judeo Christian, Kemetan , Yoruban and Indo-European animism. Tales of the The Arabian Knights the mythology of the Djinn and theories of spiritual transition from the metaphysical to Disney.
Letter of Gratitude from Middle School Instructor:
Wow, what a wonderful two days it has been. I feel so inspired, and I know that the students do, too. I have hoped to find a partnership such as this for years, and I cannot thank you enough for sharing your time and work with us over these past two days. I am looking forward to reflecting on our time together with the students and to discussing our visits in the upcoming days. I will definitely make sure that we share these reflections with you as well. Thank you also for coordinating with Black Coral - please let them know that having them there was deeply powerful for the students. Please extend our thanks to them!!! We complete an abstract art piece in the Spring that connects to an individual study of a past and present fight for rights. Having their voices as part of our year together will directly influence and inspire the students in their work.
I had a few questions about what would be most helpful in terms of feedback (I know we talked about the feedback forms - would it be easiest to fill out the feedback form directly or could we just share the feedback from the classroom)? Happy to do whatever is easiest for you. If you would like for us to contribute to Cambridge Day, is there a question that we could respond to? Of course, we would love to support any work that you are doing currently so please do let us know if there is anything else that we can do.
Many thanks again for your time! I look forward to future conversations and hope you both have a lovely evening! Warmly,
Lora Mazaheri lmazaheri@bbns.org