Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice

Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice A scholarly research center with a public humanities mission To learn more about the Center’s work, please visit: brown.edu/slaveryjustice

The Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice (CSSJ) at Brown University is a unique scholarly research center with a public humanities mission. Recognizing that racial and chattel slavery were central to the historical formation of the Americas and the modern world, the CSSJ creates a venue for the interdisciplinary study of the historical forms of slavery while also examining how these legacies of racial slavery continue to shape our contemporary world.

05/20/2026

Last night, May 19, 2026, the Marian Anderson String Quartet performed the world premiere of "Redemption," by Jonathan McNair. The piece was commissioned by the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University and performed in Churchill House at the George Houston Bass Performing Arts Space in the Perelman Arts District.

05/15/2026

Check out this recap of the April 3, 2026 Artist Talk and Exhibition Opening of "Sites of Remaking: Port Cities and Our Present." Missed the first artist talk? You’re in luck, there’s another one happening in one week for Brown Commencement!

Join us for the Commencement Artist Talk and Exhibition Reception:
📆 Friday, May 22, 2026
🕛 4 to 6 p.m.
📍 94 Waterman Street, Providence, RI
🔗 RSVP using the link in our bio!

"Sites of Remaking: Port Cities and Our Present," is an exhibition exploring themes of freedom-making, resistance, place-making and the legacies of slavery through works by three Rhode Island-based multi-disciplinary artists.

The artist talk explores interdisciplinary artistic practices around histories and legacies of racial slavery, the built environment and site-making. Artists Jazzmen Lee-Johnson, Spencer Evans, and Kia Lenise will be in conversation with Curator Ivie Orobaton, A.M. Candidate in Public Humanities, and Christopher Roberts, Assistant Professor at RISD.

Exhibition on view March 30 through October 24, 2026
Simmons Center • 94 Waterman Street • Providence, RI
Mondays–Fridays, 10am–12pm and 1–3pm (closed for school and federal holidays)

Gallery visits by appointment only. Schedule your visit using the link in our bio.

Featured artworks:
🖼️ Spencer Evans, “Happy Sunday (Aunties)” 2018, Oil on Canvas
🖼️ Kia Lenise, “Flwrs in the Attic” 2024, Digital Illustration
🖼️ Jazzmen Lee-Johnson “Free My Twin, F*k da Law 🚔🔫” 2020, Screen Print on Paper

"Face to Face with the Marian Anderson String Quartet" is an immersive program that connects performance with the histo...
05/15/2026

"Face to Face with the Marian Anderson String Quartet" is an immersive program that connects performance with the historical context of place. Developed by violist Diedra Lawrence, with commissioned music by Jonathan McNair, the program invites audiences at Brown University to engage with the layered histories of the university through sound.

📆 Tuesday, May 19
🕕 6 p.m.
📍 Churchill House, George Houston Bass Performing Arts Space in the Perelman Arts District, 155 Angell Street
Providence, RI 02906

📆 Wednesday, May 20
🕠 5:30 p.m.
📍 Providence Public Library, 150 Empire Street, Providence, RI 02906

🔗 Reserve your seats using the links in the comments!

Through performance and conversation, “Face to Face” brings the Quartet’s own artistic and historical narratives into dialogue with the stories of Brown. The program creates a space where these histories unfold alongside one another, allowing audiences to experience how music can reflect, respond to, and resonate within a specific institutional and cultural environment.

Presented by the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice at Brown University in collaboration with Brown University's Department of Africana Studies/Rites and Reason Theatre and the Providence Public Library.

These free events are made possible through the generous funding of the Simmons Center’s Heimark Artist in Residence program.

Congratulations to Thawn Sherenté Harris, Simmons Center 2025 Reimagining New England Histories Artist in Residence!
05/14/2026

Congratulations to Thawn Sherenté Harris, Simmons Center 2025 Reimagining New England Histories Artist in Residence!

Join us for a two-day convening, "Moving Towards Life: Community and Care in the Arts and Cultural Work."📆 Friday, May 8...
05/02/2026

Join us for a two-day convening, "Moving Towards Life: Community and Care in the Arts and Cultural Work."

📆 Friday, May 8, 6:30–8pm
🌐 Virtual on Zoom only

📆 Saturday, May 9, noon–4pm
📍 In-person event at AS220, 115 Empire Street, Providence, RI

🔗 Register for one or both days using the link in our bio!

How does care manifest itself in the arts and cultural spaces? How has care functioned as both a life-affirming practice and, at times, an exploitative and harmful one? What would a museum that cares for its communities to the same degree as its objects look and feel like?

This convening will bring together curators, educators, artists, memory workers, museum visitors, and creatives to wrestle with and answer these questions. Through a panel discussion, facilitated conversations, and artistic interventions, attendees will consider the possibilities and limitations of the museum as a generative space. From this, we hope to push for alternative practices within and beyond the museum that move away from flattening and negligent representations, and towards life.

“Moving Towards Life: Community and Care in the Arts and Cultural Work” is a virtual and in-person convening organized as part of the Simmons Center’s MA in Public Humanities course “Decolonization of Museums: Nations, Museums, Anti-Colonialism and the Contemporary Moment.”

Join the Simmons Center for a virtual Public Humanities Lunch Talk entitled “The Transparent Museum: Notes on Art, Acade...
04/30/2026

Join the Simmons Center for a virtual Public Humanities Lunch Talk entitled “The Transparent Museum: Notes on Art, Academia, and Institutional Life.”

📆 Friday, May 1
🕛 12 to 1 pm
📍 On Zoom only
🌐 Use the link in our bio and register to get a link to join

Graduating Public Humanities MA Student Christina Young will be in conversation with Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Stanford Art Museum, Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander.

Dr. Pitchamarn Alexander will provide an overview of the Asian American Art Initiative (AAAI), a continuing project based at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University that she co-founded and co-directs with Stanford art history professor Marci Kwon, while also recounting her experience as a first-generation college graduate navigating the opaque art world.

The Public Humanities Lunch Talk Series brings artists, curators, educators, activists, writers, community organizers and thinkers together to highlight emergent themes in the public humanities. In concert with the Simmons Center’s MA program in Public Humanities, it considers core themes ranging from decoloniality to resistance, cultural preservation to highlighting new modes of commemoration, redistribution, and justice. These events are made possible by the Debra L. Lee Lecture Series Fund.

Last Chance to Register for our April 23 & 24 "Reconsidering Port Cities" Conference! In-person registration closes Tues...
04/18/2026

Last Chance to Register for our April 23 & 24 "Reconsidering Port Cities" Conference! In-person registration closes Tuesday, April 21. Virtual registration will remain open throughout the conference.

Check out the amazing session lineup and visit the conference webpage for more information.

Join us to explore how port cities across the Atlantic world commemorate their histories related to slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. This conference addresses evolving narratives within institutions such as museums and educational centers, as well as community engagement around the legacies of slavery inside and outside museums.

This conference is generously funded by the Abrams Foundation, the Debra L. Lee Lecture Series Fund, and an Anonymous Donor.

This conference is co-organized by the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University, the International Slavery Museum, and the Centre for the Study of International Slavery at the University of Liverpool.

🖼️ Kia Lenise, “Flwrs in the Attic” 2024, Digital Illustration.

Come make suncatchers to be installed in the Simmons Center’s Symbolic Garden of the Enslaved and connect through art an...
04/09/2026

Come make suncatchers to be installed in the Simmons Center’s Symbolic Garden of the Enslaved and connect through art and community.

Open to all Brown Students.

Spring Refractions: A suncatcher-making event
🗓️ Monday, April 13
🕒 2 to 3 p.m.
📍 94 Waterman Street
🔗 Brown students, use the QR code or link in our bio to RSVP

Take a behind-the-scenes look at the installation of "Sites of Remaking: Port Cities and Our Present," now on view at th...
04/02/2026

Take a behind-the-scenes look at the installation of "Sites of Remaking: Port Cities and Our Present," now on view at the Simmons Center.

Join us for the artist talk and opening reception on Friday, April 3, or schedule a gallery visit to see the full exhibition and get a copy of the accompanying brochure!

"Sites of Remaking" is an exhibition exploring themes of freedom-making, resistance, place-making and the legacies of slavery through works by three Rhode Island-based multi-disciplinary artists: Jazzmen Lee-Johnson, Spencer Evans, and Kia Lenise. Curated by Ivie Orobaton, A.M. Candidate in Public Humanities.

Simmons Center • 94 Waterman Street • Providence, RI
Mondays–Fridays, 10am–12pm and 1–3pm (closed for school and federal holidays)

Gallery visits by appointment only. Schedule your visit using the link in our bio.

Address

94 Waterman Street
Providence, RI
02906

Telephone

+14018635099

Website

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