Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project in Maryland

03/20/2024

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FYI: Port Arthur, TX, to Unveil Middle Passage Marker, Saturday, March 23, 2024

02/15/2024

FYI: Thanks to everyone who joined us for our 2nd Black History Month session on Feb 11, 2024: People and Voices of the Diaspora. For anyone who missed it or who wishes to watch it again or share, please follow this link:

Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project 2024 Black History Month Programming (session from Feb 11, 2024)This pre-recorded session includes slidesh...

01/01/2024

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01/01/2024

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12/29/2023

Remembering ancestors

08/12/2023

FYI: On August 23rd, MPCPMP invites you to a webinar with performing artist Antonio Rocha in observance of the UNESCO-designated International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition.

On August 23rd, MPCPMP invites you to a webinar with performing artist Antonio Rocha in observance of the UNESCO-designated International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition. The program will be on Zoom, and you can register for free at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_8rpPGUdqS_GjPXYHOZmdwg #/registration

The story of the Malaga, a 19th century ship built in Maine that transported captive Africans, was created and will be performed by Antonio Rocha. Told from the perspective of the ship, Rocha uses song, narration, and mime to weave his way through this historical tale that chronicles the history of the trans-Atlantic human trade and its legacy. Annually, on August 23rd, the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project (MPCPMP) hosts a program to acknowledge this day and the lives of those captive Africans who perished during the trans-Atlantic crossing known as the Middle Passage and the ten million who survived to build the Americas. Through the presentation of this creative work, The Malaga Speaks, MPCPMP offers a broader narrative of connection and the Diaspora – from ship building, to the ocean voyage, to arrival, into enslavement; from Maine, to Africa, across the Atlantic, to Brazil.

07/16/2023

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03/31/2023

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There are not enough days in March to adequately highlight all the women who have contributed to the on-going success of the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project and its work to honor African ancestors. On this last day of Women's History Month, we wish to name a few more significant members of our village: Rhonda Jones; Jody Allen; JoAnn Braxton; Jane Landers; Lynn Carlson; Geri Agosto; Shana Weinberg; Zora Cobb-O'Neill; Nana Malaya Rucker; Louise Diaz-Jenkins; Euri Huggins; Wanda Sabir; Edith Heard; Nana Patricia Newton; Karen Malachi; Adrienne Cobb Brooks; Anoa Monsho; Heleny Cook; Rosalyn Howard; Chana Wilkerson; Janet and Maisha Moses; Brynda Moragne; Asmara Sium; Willa Walker; Lisa Di**le; Karen Edmonds Spellman; Shirley McKinney; Julissa Peña; Andrena Crockett; Rosa Long; Louise Jenkins; Miriam DeCosta-Willis; Barbara Paca; Stephanie Franklin; Liz Incer-Smith; Marita Rivera; Veris Lee; Barbara Paca; Brenda Johnson-Perkins; Theresa Sirles. Since 2011, they have been our advocates, our rock, our mentors, our liaisons, our advocates, our voice, and listening ears. For all these phenomenal women as well as those we have not mentioned, we give thanks.

03/30/2023

The Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project has been awarded a 3-year grant from the Mellon Foundation! We are proud of the acknowledgement of our work and excited for what this funding will make possible. Please read on for the full press release:

Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project
Ann Cobb, Executive Director
[email protected]

For Immediate Release: March 30, 2023

Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project Awarded Mellon Foundation Grant

JACKSONVILLE, FL, March 30 -- The Mellon Foundation has awarded a 3-year grant to the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project (MPCPMP) to support community-led research efforts, outreach, organizing, discussion, planning, and engagement with the Black Atlantic's silenced and ignored histories. MPCPMP, established in 2011, is a national non-profit organization. Its mission is to honor the two million captive Africans who perished during the trans-Atlantic crossing known as the Middle Passage and the ten million who survived to build the Americas. Both the ocean and the arrival locations are sacred spaces. By re-centering the history of place and people, MPCPMP informs and assists local communities in more than 70 arrival locations from New Hampshire to Texas in publicly acknowledging with markers and remembrance ceremonies their connection to the trans-Atlantic human trade as well as the arrival, presence, and contributions of Africans and their descendants.

The Middle Passage was the ocean route traveled by over 12 million kidnapped Africans who were marched to the African coasts and transported to the Americas to begin their lives of enslavement. More than 2 million did not survive the voyage. It is the largest forced migration in human history. A Middle Passage arrival location is identified as a place where captive children, women, and men first placed their feet after leaving the continent of Africa.

The UNESCO Routes of Enslaved Peoples: Resistance, Liberty, and Heritage project has designated 43 of these arrival locations as a “Site of Memory.” UNESCO recognizes these landmarks as internationally significant because of their cultural and historical importance to the collective interests of humanity.

03/26/2023

There are those who have worked with the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project (MPCPMP) who are veterans of the civil right movement. One giant during this period is Mimi Jones. MPCPMP is please to honor her during this 2023 WHM.

Originally from Georgia, Mimi was 17 years old when she joined other activists at a “swim-in” at a whites-only pool in St. Augustine, Florida on June 18, 1964 to protest segregation. During this protest, the owner of the motel poured acid into the water. As photos of this attack circulated around the world, it became one of those events that led to President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Eventually she moved to Roxbury, MA, where she was continued her work as a community activist.

In 2014, Mimi joined Vivian Johnson in organizing and planning the Middle Passage ancestral remembrance ceremony at Faneuil Hall. Her expertise and work with African American organizations, particularly youth-related, were represented in the design of the program and the participants. She became an ancestor in 2020.

03/12/2023

It is a honor to present Bernice Johnson Reagon during Women’s History Month 2023, when the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project is highlighting women who have been involved directly with us in commemorating Middle Passage ancestors and their descendants.

Dr. Reagon is a civil rights and social activist, a founding member of SNCC’s Freedom Singers in the Albany, GA, movement, a scholar, and composer. In 1973, she formed Sweet Honey In The Rock, an all-women’s group that performed a ca****la music ranging from traditional folk, African chants, field hollers, and hymns to blues, jazz, and rap. She has been a supporter of MPCPMP since its inception. In 2012, she sang at dawn and at dusk as part of our first remembrance ceremony in Baltimore (2012). Bernice and her daughter Toshi Reagon composed and granted MPCPMP permission to use “Remember Me” and “The First Time I Saw Big Water” as the Project’s theme music. Her advice and involvement have assisted us in maintaining focus on Middle Passage history and our ancestors who were forcibly transported and, in many instances, forgotten.