This weekend (November 21-23) the Umbrella Art Fair (International Square, 1850 K Street, NW Washington DC) features a dazzling installation presented by the Capital Hill Boys Club Intergenerational Gallery. The project emerges out of the celebrated National Gallery of Art exhibition, Afro Atlantic Histories, April 10 – July 17, 2022https://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/afro-atlantic-histories which originated in a majorContinue reading “Remixing Zanele Muholi’s Ntozakhe II: The Echos Project of the Capital Hill Boys Club of Anacostia DC”
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Celebrating the Murals at the Capital Hill Boys Club Gallery
Recently, my USC-Capital Campus students and I visited the Capital Hill Boys Club Intergernational Art Gallery at 16th and Marion Barry Avenue, SE in Washington DC’s Ward 8. (We had been inspired by Elizabeth O’Gorek’s excellent article, “A Hub For Artists: Capital Hill Boys Club Art Gallery” (East of the River) July 16, 2025https://eastoftheriverdcnews.com/2025/07/16/a-hub-for-artists-capital-hill-boys-club-art-gallery/) WeContinue reading “Celebrating the Murals at the Capital Hill Boys Club Gallery”
Amphibious Assaults: Why are Dancing Protest Frogs “Good to Think”?
by Ellen Schattschneider and Mark Auslander We just read Christie Thompson’s delightful interview with L.M. Bogad (author of “Tactical Performance: The Theory and Practice of Serious Play”) on the long political tradition of absurdist protest and “tactical frivolity” that is exemplified by the Portland Frog Brigade, Operation Inflation, and the other dancing costumed frogs andContinue reading “Amphibious Assaults: Why are Dancing Protest Frogs “Good to Think”?”
“I give and bequeath to said Ann Beall, the negro girl Bettey that plays with her”: Slavery, Sentimental Kinship, and Slow Violence in British Colonial America, 1749
My students and I have been pondering a fascinating line in the September 1749 will of Richard Bennett III, who died in Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore: Bennett wills to Ann Bell (actually Beall), whom he identifies as “a little girl that lives with me under the care of her aunt theContinue reading ““I give and bequeath to said Ann Beall, the negro girl Bettey that plays with her”: Slavery, Sentimental Kinship, and Slow Violence in British Colonial America, 1749”
The slave ship Peggy in Georgetown Port [DC], 1770
What do we know of the Peggy, the slave ship that transported 144 enslaved Africans from The Windward Coast in West Africa in 1770, evidently selling scores of them in the port of Georgetown, Prince George’s County, Maryland, which three decades later became part of the District of Columbia? It would appear that the PeggyContinue reading “The slave ship Peggy in Georgetown Port [DC], 1770”
In Search of Grace (“Gracy”) Ann Duckett, c. 1791-1874, enslaved by Samuel and Lydia Whitall of Georgetown
Building on research by Lisa Fager of the Black Georgetown Foundation and staff members at Dumbarton House, my students and I are researching the life and legacy of Grace (Gracy) Ann Duckett, born c. 1791 in Maryland, deceased July 28, 1874 in Georgetown, District of Columbia. Gracy appears to have spent the majority of herContinue reading “In Search of Grace (“Gracy”) Ann Duckett, c. 1791-1874, enslaved by Samuel and Lydia Whitall of Georgetown”
In Search of Martha (Pochahsquinest) Bassett (1936-1968) of the Yakama Nation
My students and I are beginning work assisting our collaborator Emily Washines and her relatives in the Yakama Nation (central Washington State) in understanding the life of her cousin Martha Bassett (traditional surname Pochahsquinest). Miss Bassett. who went missing in Chicago in 1967, was searched for by her family for decades. Recent forensic DNA researchContinue reading “In Search of Martha (Pochahsquinest) Bassett (1936-1968) of the Yakama Nation”
Beholding “The Herds” and the Breath of the Planet
Like millions around the world, I have been transfixed by the journey of “The Herds”, often termed the largest public art project ever attempted, during the spring and summer of 2025. Hundreds of life-size wild animal puppets or mobile animal sculptures, guided or animated by their human puppeteers, have undertaken a dramatic migration from theContinue reading “Beholding “The Herds” and the Breath of the Planet”
In Search of Tom, escaped by Canoe from Georgetown, October 1761
In a previous post I mentioned the enslaved man Tom, who escaped from merchant Robert Peter of Georgetown on October 4, 1761. On October 9, 1761 Peter placed the following advertisement in the Maryland Gazette “Rock Creek October 9, 1761. Ran away from the Subscriber in the 4th instant, a very likely Negro Fellow namedContinue reading “In Search of Tom, escaped by Canoe from Georgetown, October 1761”
The slave ship Peggy in Georgetown Port [DC], 1770
What do we know of the Peggy, the slave ship that transported 144 enslaved Africans from the Windward Coast in West Africa in 1770, evidently selling scores of captive people in the port of Georgetown (then in Frederick County, Maryland) which three decades later became part of the District of Columbia? It would appear thatContinue reading “The slave ship Peggy in Georgetown Port [DC], 1770”
Mark Auslander 