John Britto,  Robert Clarkin, John Murphy,   Claire Andrade-Watkins and Keith Oliveira.   Continuing the conversation and talking about Mamai Alves house that is off to their left.  “Mamai” was the only other resident, other than Melay who managed to fight and hold onto her house.

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John Britto,  Robert Clarkin, John Murphy,   Claire Andrade-Watkins and Keith Oliveira sitting on the stoop of Charles “Melay” Simon, now in his late 80’s and  one of the last remaining residents of the old Fox Point.  As President of the Fox Point Neighborhood Association he led the community  fight in the l960s against the expansion of Brown University and the displacement of community residents.

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John Britto,  Robert Clarkin, John Murphy,   Claire Andrade-Watkins and Keith Oliveira talk about the history of the Holy Rosary Church and its impact on the Cape Verdean community.

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John Britto,  Robert Clarkin, John Murphy and Claire Andrade-Watkins.  More memories of the community, Wickenenden St., the Cape Verdeans, Irish and others who lived in Fox  Point.

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Johnny Britto talks and his memory of the place, Wickenden St. and what happened to him and his family.

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John Britto,  Robert Clarkin are first generation born Fox Point residents who fought to save the Cape Verdean community from being displaced.   Claire Andrade-Watkins and Keith Oliveira are second generation born Cape Verdeans from Fox Point, and the last generation to be raised in Fox Point.  These six  clips for “Imaging” Fox Point are work-in-progress. The completed “Imaging” Fox Point installation will include live video from each person talking about the significance and meaning of the location where they are recorded. These six movies are a  sample of  what is a   much larger series of “Imaging” recollections recorded along Wickenden St. and  the waterfront.

John Britto,  Robert Clarkin, John Murphy and Claire Andrade-Watkins on Wickenden St., in front of the “Coffee Exchange” that had been the home of Johnny and his family before they were forced to move.

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Culture”

Saturday, May 1 – Sunday, May 9, 2010

All events are free and open to the public

Join us for a week-long series of free public events to celebrate the memory of Providence’s Cape Verdean Fox Point community, with films, music, panels, exhibitions, an interactive video installation and a parade for young and old.

Intellectual voices, artists of the Cape Verdean Diaspora and invited guests examine the challenges inherent in preserving the memory, history and culture of the displaced, with a focus on the Cape Verdean community in Fox Point.

Events take place Saturday May 1-Sunday May 9 at various venues at Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design and the city of Providence

For more information visit:
www.cvassociation.webs.com

PROGRAM OF EVENTS

SPECIAL EVENTS

Saturday, May 1 – Sunday May 2

RHODE ISLAND PBS PREMIERE WSBE-TV 36
“Some Kind of Funny Porto Rican?: A Cape Verdean American Story” (2006)
A documentary by filmmaker Claire Andrade-Watkins
Three generations of Cape Verdeans in Providence, Rhode Island were forcibly displaced by urban renewal in the l960s and l970s to make way for the fancy coffee shops, antique stores and elegantly restored houses that now fill the streets of Fox Point.
Airs Saturday, May 1 at 7:00PM & Sunday, May 2 at 11:00PM

Monday May 3 – Sunday May 9

EXHIBITION: “Imaging Cidade Velha” & ”Imaging Fox Point”
Immersive, interactive digital conversations. A collaborative project  of filmmaker Claire Andrade-Watkins and artist John Craig Freeman
“Imaging Cidade Velha,” (2008) examines the connections to Fox Point, slave trade, and Cape Verdean emigration
“Imaging Fox Point,” (2007)  explores displacement and memory in Fox Point
232 Westminster St.
10:00AM-5:00PM daily

Thursday May 6

FILM SCREENING: “Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans” (2008)
followed by discussion about displacement and preserving history with filmmaker Lolis Eric Elie, a national award-winning metro columnist and author
RISD Auditorium, Canal Walk
7:00PM-10:00PM

PANELS

Friday May 7
Brown University, Andrews Dining Hall, Meeting St.

Cape Verdean Language, Culture & Art (9:30AM-11:00AM)
Dr. Marlyse Baptista (University of Michigan), Dr. Donaldo Macedo (UMass Boston) & Manuel Gonçalves
(Cape Verdean Creole Institute)
Discussant: Dr. Claire Andrade-Watkins (Emerson College / Visiting Scholar, CSREA, Brown University)

Reconstituting memory, preserving history(11:30AM-1:00PM)
Group presentations from Fox Point  Cape Verdean Project  collaborations and projects including the “Working the Boats” project  on Local 1329 of the International Longshoremen’s Association and Kids Talk Radio

Models and Challenges of First Voice Collaborations (2:00pm-4:00PM)
Dr. Elizabeth Belanger & Dr. Carole Calo (Stonehill College), Dr. Peter Nien-chu Kiang & Dr. Shirley Suet-ling Tang (UMass Boston), Dr. Joyce Rain Anderson (Bridgewater State College), Discussant: Dr. Aminah Fernandes Pilgrim (UMass Boston)
MUSIC by Noah Andrade

KEYNOTE PANEL :“Cape Verdean Independence & the Integrity of Memory” (7:00PM-10:00PM)
Featuring Pioneers of the Cape Verde Independence Struggle: Paula Fortes (Former Member PAIGC / Combatante),
Tony D. Ramos (Videographer and Artist), Romana Ramos (Director CACD / a founder of the Cape Verdean Independence Celebration at India Point Park), Ambassador Tony Lima (Combatante / Poet / Author / Vocalist); Discussant: Dr. João Rosa (UMass Dartmouth)
RISD Auditorium, Canal Walk

PARADE

Saturday, May 8
2^nd ANNUAL ST. ANTONIO PARADE

Through Fox Point, beginning at Vartan Gregorian School, down Wickenden  St., ending at monument on S. Main St.

1:00PM rain or shine
Coordinators:  ad hoc committee for the St. Antonio Procession, Dr. Eunice Ferreira, the Cape Verdean Heritage Sub-Committee.

Learn more about the St. Antonio Society.

This program is made possible in part through a grant from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, the generous support of  the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University,  the Cape Verdean Association of Brockton,  RISD Department of Public Engagement, Brown University Cape Verdean Students Association, Emerson College, the Cape Verdean Association of Brockton,  CABO, Inc. (Cape Verdean American Business Organization),  The Cruz Companies,  Sun Travel Agency, Cape Verdean American Community Development, Inc., the Cape Verdean Heritage Sub-Committee, the Fox Point Cape Verdean Project advisory committee, members of Fox Point community and Cheryl E.H. Locke, Brown 1976 and Ronald P. Locke, Brown 1972.

•FOXPOINTCAPEVERDEANPROJECT•
P.O. Box  603098  Providence, RI  02906
phone: 401-331-8934

THE FOX POINT CAPE VERDEAN PROJECT
presents
”Whose History is it? Interpreting History, Memory and Culture”

BUILDING HISTORY   ONE STORY  AT A TIME

The story of the Cape Verdeans of Fox Point embrace fundamental questions of the connections between community, language, culture, and art and identifies the challenges inherent in preserving the memory, history and culture of the displaced in the voices of the people who experienced displacement. The story has wider significance in the context of today’s society, where climactic shifts and natural disasters, wars, global industrial expansion and economic turmoil have resulted in whole communities being displaced all over the globe. The worldwide Cape Verdean population is one of the oldest Diasporas with international, historical significance.  This fact is attributed to the place of the archipelago in the history of the transatlantic slave trade of the fifteenth century which made possible some of the most important geographical discoveries and socio-economic developments of the modern world.  Beginning in this era, and indeed from the very start of the islands’ existence, migration and emigration were inextricably intertwined with Cape Verdean society and people.  Thus the Cape Verdean people inherently qualify as a Diaspora, with arguably the most important communities being located in the United States.  The Fox Point, Rhode Island community—as the second oldest enclave in the US and therefore in the Cape Verdean Diaspora overall—is exceptional among all of these.  It serves as a unique “bridge” between the old and the new worlds, with multigenerational families intact allowing for historical and cultural preservation.  And due to its history of displacement (through urban expansion/renewal), study of Fox Point also affords critical engagement with some of the most important political, economic, and sociological events/factors that have affected Cape Verdeans in the Diaspora throughout their past.

Dr. Aminah Pilgrim
Assistant Professor  of Africana Studies
University of Massachusetts, Boston

Conference&Program co-convener
“Whose History is it?  Interpreting History, Memory and Culture,” May 1-9, 2010

A Fox Point Cape Verdean Project Collaboration
filmmaker/historian Claire Andrade-Watkins & Artist John Craig Freeman

Click here to view examples of “imaging”

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

“Imaging” Fox Point/Cidade Velha is a collaboration between the Fox Point Cape Verdean Project, the documentary  work and research of historian/filmmaker Claire Andrade-Watkins and the work and research of artist John Craig Freeman. “Imaging Place” reinforces and compliments the underlying premise of globalization and community implicit in both projects while creatively and innovatively expanding the depth and breadth of each project.

The focus on the cultural, geopolitical and economic dynamics and impact of globalization on community is particularly germane for Cape Verdeans in general and the Cape Verde community in North America in particular. The Cape Verdeans in America have a multi-generational interaction and relationship with Cape Verde, stretching back almost two centuries, which is in a constant state of evolution. For the Cape Verdean communities of the Diaspora, native born, or descendent, Cape Verde is their place of origin, linking them by language, kinship, a shared colonial past, and the transatlantic journey of emigration. Joining forces with the cutting edge technology and methodology of Imaging Place allows us to create a multi-dimensional and innovative cyber community that first locates Fox Point then builds linkages to Cape Verde and other communities of the Cape Verdean Diaspora. This is a quantum leap forward to develop an immersive, interactive digital media focusing on the educational, cultural and historical experiences of Cape Verde and the Diaspora. This collaboration creates a new baseline and understanding of a unique 21st century transnational community. It will draw from and challenge the disciplines of social science, history and anthropology as well as documentary and narrative practices.

Imaging Fox Point/Cape Verde is the creation of a virtual space that globalizes a local   community through the research and creative work of Professor Freeman and his Imaging Place project, which he describes as: “… a user navigated, interactive computer program that combines panoramic photography, digital video, and three-dimensional technologies to investigate and document situations where the forces of globalization are impacting the lives of individuals in local communities.”

The collaboration between Professor Freeman and myself merges digital art and the extensive archival material collected during the research for the documentary, “SOME KIND OF FUNNY PORTO RICAN?: A Cape Verdean American Story, which includes rare archival photographs, stock footage and distinctive “first voice” oral narratives.

FILMMAKER/ARTISTS

Claire Andrade-Watkins, PhD

John Craig Freeman

The goals of the Fox Point Cape Verdean Project are to:

1)organize, preserve, digitize and catalogue primary source documents, visual material and 8mm footage of the Cape Verdean community and  major institutions including: the St Antonio Association, the  former Boys Club (now Boys & Girls Club) and  Local 1329 of the International Longshoremen’s Association.

2)reconstitute and rebuild the former Cape Verdean community in real and virtual time emphasizing a Cape Verdean “voice” and perspective through creative expression and public engagement.

3)build a database and a model of scholarly and community collaboration for the preservation of the history, legacy, culture and traditions of Cape Verdeans in Fox Point. This is a multi-faceted initiative that includes but is not limited to: archival research, preservation, oral history, documentary productions, public exhibitions, non-linear digital narrative installations, and websites.

4)secure resources for the archival video preservation and transfer of work shot  in multiple video formats, including over seventy hours  of 1/2″ reel-to-reel video shot by Cape Verdean video artist/videographer  Tony D. Ramos. His footage includes material shot in Cape Verde in l975 at the time of independence, meetings in the Cape Verdean community in Fox Point during the same era as well as his travels through Senegal, Iran, and China.