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An accessible, softcover volume which takes up the unfinished conversation about what it is to be a descendant member of the Black community in Newport, RI, and beyond, today.
“There is a world of something in the nkisi bundle, and that world was brought to Newport, Rhode Island, where Black descendant communities—since the beginning of Newport’s relationship with the transatlantic slave trade—were dispersed by the wind at sea, allowing the cycles of African and African identities to begin again and flower into the vibrant community of today and its continued work toward freedom-making.”—Dr. Akeia de Barros GomesThe Edward W. Kane and Martha J. Wallace Center for Black History is housed in the city of Newport’s oldest documented home at the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House (ca. 1697). The title, Echoes from the Attic, comes from the discovery of a nkisi, a spirit bundle found under the floorboards of the house during its restoration; the bundle is the springboard for this new publication which features contributions from scholars, and from members of the descendant community in Newport. Moving beyond the Gilded Age and stories of Black wealth and enterprise, there are also stories of slavery, of resistance, of regeneration, and persistence.
Edited by Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes
Contributions by Rebecca Bertrand, Kaela Bleho and Zoe Hume, Akeia de Barros Gomes, Kimberly Conway Dumpson and John M. Rice, and Anthony Bogues
With stories from members of the descendant community in Newport
Rebecca J. Bertrand is the Executive Director of the Newport Historical Society.
Kaela Bleho, MA, is the Newport Historical Society’s Director of Digital Collections.
Zoe Hume is a doctoral candidate in Museum Education and Visitor-Centered Curation at Florida State University.
Kimberly Conway Dumpson, ESQ, CFRE, is the fourth great granddaughter of Isaac and Sarah Ann Conner Rice.
John M. Rice, PhD, is Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and the second great grandson of Isaac and Sarah Ann Conner Rice.
Akeia de Barros Gomes, PhD, is the Director of the Edward W. Kane and Martha J. Wallace Center for Black History and a Visiting Scholar and Adjunct Lecturer at the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University.
Anthony Bogues, PhD, is the Brown University Asa Messer Professor of Humanities and Critical Theory, Professor of Africana Studies, Director of the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, and Professor of History of Art and Architecture at Brown University.