On behalf of our team, you are invited to join a community listening session for the Black Heritage Tree Project taking place in your city!
Come meet our team, learn about our project, share your ideas, and enjoy a meal on us.
We look forward to gathering with you!
DATE: SATURDAY JULY 5TH
TIME: 10 AM - 12PM AST
LOCATION: CHANT Crucian Heritage and Nature Tourism, 217 Custom House Street, Frederiksted, St Croix 00840, U.S. Virgin Islands
Organized by BHTP St. Croix Team Members - Frandelle Gerard, Dr. Justin Dunnavant, Dr. Chenzira Davis-Kahina, and Olasee Davis
This event is supported and sponsored by a Meridian grant from the National Geographic Society.
PRESS RELEASE
Groundbreaking National Geographic Society-funded Project to Preserve Black Heritage Connects to St. Croix, Virgin Islands
A groundbreaking initiative led by African Diaspora Archaeologist Alicia Odewale has been selected for funding from the National Geographic Society, the organization announced in a recent press release. Dr. Odewale and her team will soon launch a transformative project centered on Black heritage and resilience to create the first Global Black Heritage Tree Map. The project was one of 10 selected for support from 88 global applications as part of the Society’s Meridian Grant program, which provides funding to multidisciplinary teams of National Geographic Explorers and local community partners.
The team of National Geographic Explorers on this project consist of Dr. Alicia Odewale, Justin Dunnavant, Clinton Johnson, Nick Okafor, and Kristi Williams. They will work collaboratively with descendant community leaders, historians, forestry experts and educators in Oklahoma, Texas and the U.S. Virgin Islands to build the first living Global Black Heritage Tree Map documenting generations of Black freedom stories.
Dr. Alicia Odewale, an African Diaspora archaeologist and National Geographic Explorer, is the lead on this project, which seeks to explore, preserve, and amplify the untold stories of Black communities through a powerful new lens: Black Heritage Trees. Leading the charge in St. Croix will be Frandelle Gerrard. Frandelle is the Executive Director at Crucian Heritage and Nature Tourism, Inc.(CHANT) on the island of St. Croix. She has been the driving force behind creating a woodworking program using reclaimed trees that were damaged in hurricanes to bring new life after devastation. Joining her in St. Croix is another National Geographic Explorer, Justin Dunnavant. Justin is an archaeology professor at UCLA who studies on land and underwater. He has been working in the Virgin Islands since 2016 to utilize the use of maps of culturally significant trees on the island of St. Croix to see how it is that enslaved communities reconfigured their landscapes.
About the Project
The Black Heritage Tree Project is an innovative collaboration that combines archaeology, history, and storytelling to uncover the untold narratives of Black freedom and resilience. By studying historic Black trees, the project will connect the dots between pivotal moments in Black history, providing communities with a deeper understanding of their heritage.
Get to know our project vision: "With this project, we have an opportunity to experience Black heritage in a whole new way and reclaim this history before these silent witnesses are cut down and lost forever. Weaving together the stories of Black freedom and Black survivance surrounding these Black heritage trees that were there over 100 years ago to witness the first homes going up in the Free Black Town of Greenwood, that were there 160 years ago to witness the first Juneteenth celebrations in Galveston, and that were there 177 years ago when enslaved Africans rose up and took their freedom by force in St. Croix.
We have a chance to learn so much more than our history books or our elders had the time to share. Along with the loss of most of our elders and human living witnesses, we have also seen so many of our historically Black towns be entirely erased from the landscape, and for many of these historic spaces, the only thing left behind to tell the story are the trees that once anchored these communities in place. The Black Heritage Tree Project will work together to un-erase these histories and tell stories through the trees that have been here standing as silent witnesses to the past, but now it’s time for them to speak." - Dr. Alicia Odewale
For more information please contact:
Rachel Box, Archaeological Support Specialist at schulz2010@gmail.com.
