December 11, 2024 – Rhode Island Humanities was proud to host the National Humanities Conference (NHC) in Providence November 13-17. This gathering brought together nearly 900 attendees including participants from all over the country to share their work and to experience the public humanities in Rhode Island. Over 50 local organizations participated, ensuring that the NHC will have a long term impact here in the Ocean State. This was a record-breaking number for the NHC, which is hosted in a different location each year. The NHC is organized by the Federation of State Humanities Councils and the National Humanities Alliance.
Conference attendees included staff and board members of the 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils; faculty members, graduate students, and academic leaders from colleges and universities; professionals from museums, libraries, and academic associations; and leaders and staff of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Smithsonian Institution. Representatives from local and national cultural organizations and educational initiatives also attended the NHC. Colleagues from Humanities Guahan (Guam) traveled the farthest logging approximately 7,990 miles to participate in the conference in Providence this year.
The NHC included four key programs – the Opening Plenary, Capps Lecture, Address by the Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Closing Plenary – that each highlighted complex stories and showcased local public humanities work within a national context. Over 100 concurrent sessions over the multi-day conference brought together humanities leaders working on issues of Indigenous culture, slavery and justice, incarceration, environmental humanities, veterans, literacy, filmmaking, data and evaluation, and advocating for humanities funding in both public and higher education sectors galvanized by the conference theme: Making Waves, Navigating Currents of Change. The NHC also included 13 different tours, offsite sessions and events that engaged with 15 local partner organizations – ensuring that attendees from across the nation experienced Rhode Island’s unique humanities ecosystem in the communities where this work is already occurring on a daily basis. To learn more about the sessions, tours, and offsites please visit the NHC website.
As part of the NHC, RI Humanities staff curated and co-led a day-long Pre-Conference session for Grants and Program Officers from humanities councils across the country focused on themes of immigration, cultural organizations as key sites for civic engagement, and innovative reimaginings of historic houses. The group visited the Lippitt House Museum and Wedding Cake House in Providence. Staff also designed a bus tour focused on Black History in Newport with RI Black Heritage Society, Newport Historical Society, and RI Slave History Medallions; a bus tour of the Blackstone Valley National Heritage Corridor with Slater Mill, RI Latino Arts, and the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council; and a Rhode Tour Run of downtown Providence which is still available via the free Rhode Tour app and website.
Held at the Rhode Island Convention Center and Omni Hotel, the NHC had a significant economic impact, with over $1 million in revenue to the city and the state. Around 350 participants fanned out to 19 restaurants across the city on a single evening to share a meal with colleagues from their respective regions of the country and to savor the tastes of Providence’s award-winning culinary delights.
Support from our community was critical to the success of the NHC. The Conference shone a bright light on Providence and brought together our state’s outstanding humanities community in dialogue with others across the country.
RI Humanities raised $42,500 to support the Conference in addition to regular annual fundraising activities. We are deeply grateful to the Rhode Island Foundation and the Providence Tourism Council for their support of the National Humanities Conference. Rhode Island Foundation support ensured that scholarships and stipends were available to support local engagement with this unique opportunity, ensuring the impact of the NHC will stretch well into the future here in the Ocean State. Funding from the Providence Tourism Council also supported a reusable water bottle as a gift for all Conference attendees featuring a unique design created by designer Jane Androski in collaboration with the RI Humanities staff. Hundreds of bottles were distributed, most leaving Rhode Island to share the NHC brand and its connection to the Ocean State across the country. Additionally, we are grateful to other local sponsors including: Brown University, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, Providence College School of Arts and Sciences, the University of Rhode Island College of Arts and Sciences, City of Providence Department of Art, Culture and Tourism, Bryant University, Johnson & Wales University, and Wheaton College all of whom made an important investment in the public humanities through their support of this year’s Conference. (For a full list of sponsors, please visit the Conference website.)
RI Humanities’ hosting and curation of the NHC was led by Elizabeth Francis, Executive Director, and Rachael Jeffers, Associate Director of Engagement, with invaluable support from the full team including: Julia Renaud, Associate Director of Grants and Humanities Initiatives, Sophia Mackenzie, Associate Director of Development, Scott Raker, Associate Director of Operations, Julia Aguiar, Grants and Humanities Initiatives Coordinator, and Imanah Mahmoud, NHC Engagement Facilitator, and the dedicated Board of Directors. All were essential to the success of this record-breaking, deeply meaningful gathering of the nationwide public humanities community. Our grateful thanks also to the 25 volunteers who supported the conference activities throughout the week.
Continue reading for recaps of key Conference programs and images. Additional images available on Flickr at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rihumanities/albums
Opening Plenary:
The Conference featured an engaging capstone address that included a warm welcome from David N. Cicilline, President and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation, and an insightful discussion of urban renewal and historic preservation in Providence by Marisa Angell Brown, PhD, Executive Director of the Providence Preservation Society. The evening closed with remarks from former RI Poet Laureate Tina Cane and an inspiring performance by Seoyon Kim, RI Youth Poetry Ambassador, of “Forty five paces,” an original poem commissioned by RI Humanities for the NHC in response to the conference theme: Making Waves, Navigating Currents of Change. Kim, a current high school senior, visual artist, writer, and musician from Rhode Island, was met with a standing ovation by the audience. The poem was co-written by Kim and Jacquelyn Song, RI Deputy Youth Poetry Ambassador, a first-year student at Columbia University. Click here to read the poem in full.
For more information about the RI Youth Poetry Ambassador Program, visit the RI Center for the Book website.
Click here to watch a video recording of the Opening Plenary.
Walter H. Capps Memorial Lecture
Reclaiming: Black and Indigenous Histories Chart New Ways of Knowing
Held at the historic First Baptist Meeting House, the Capps Lecture had an audience of over 700 people. Rev. Dr. Jamie Washam welcomed the group with empowering words that grounded the gathering in this historic building c. 1774 and the community’s long legacy of embracing complexity. The Capps Lecture featured Lorén M. Spears, PhD (Narragansett), Executive Director of the Tomaquag Museum; Akeia de Barros Gomes, PhD, former Vice President of Maritime Studies at Mystic Seaport Museum and recently named inaugural Director of the new Newport Historical Society’s Center for Black History set to the open at the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House; and Linford D. Fisher, PhD, Associate Professor of History at Brown University. The conversation was moderated by Mack Scott, PhD (Narragansett), Visiting Assistant Professor of Slavery and Justice at Brown University.
Drawing on their experiences with Mystic Seaport Museum’s exhibition Entwined: Freedom, Sovereignty, and the Sea, the community-centered database project Stolen Relations, and the development of the Indigenous-led Tomaquag Museum, the speakers engaged in a conversation about their journeys into public humanities, the power of Black and Indigenous communities reclaiming their histories to understand the long impact of enslavement and colonialism, and how these new narratives and approaches speak to historical commemoration and public engagement.
Click here to watch a video recording of the Capps Lecture.
NEH Chairs’ Address
After a blessing of the space by members of the Pacific Islands Humanities Network, United States Senator Jack Reed (RI), a veteran, lifelong Rhode Islander, and Senator for 28 years, welcomed the audience of hundreds of public humanities professionals from across the country noting how vital the humanities are to civic health. Sen. Reed then introduced Shelly C. Lowe (Navajo), Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Chair Lowe highlighted the power of the humanities to connect across differences as seen through the work of the 2024 National Humanities Medalists and in communities large and small, rural and urban in her travels to communities from Maine to Hawai’i.
Speaking to the Conference theme of Making Waves, Navigating Currents of Change, Chair Lowe noted, “This isn’t a time to live in fear, to close ourselves off to the world. This is a time to be brave. To ask questions and seek answers and build the world you want, the world you’ve always wanted.”
Click here to watch a video recording of the NEH Chairs’ Address.
Closing Plenary with the Langston Hughes Community Poetry Reading Group
On the final day of the Conference, attendees concluded their experience in Providence with the Langston Hughes Community Poetry Reading (LHCPR), a group dedicated to celebrating Langston Hughes’ ties to Rhode Island and New England more broadly and amplifying his contributions to American literature, history, and culture.The Closing Plenary included an introduction by former RI Humanities board member and longtime LHCPR supporter Shawn Christian, PhD and featured readings and performances by April Brown, EdM. Co-Director of LHCPR with Marcela Astudillo, Tarshire Battle, Avi David, and Leland Baker and was followed by a thought-provoking conversation moderated by Brown that drew the audience into community with the panelists.
Click here to watch a video recording of the Closing Plenary.
Local representation at the National Humanities Conference
More than 50 local cultural organizations were represented at the 2024 National Humanities Conference, including libraries, colleges and universities, filmmakers, city/state/federal departments, environmental organizations, and small businesses. These and so many more make up Rhode Island’s unique public humanities ecosystem. We were thrilled they joined us and are heartened by the hundreds of connections made and the ripples of impact that will surely occur as a result. They include:
Akomawt Educational Initiative
Andean Cultural Center
The Avenue Concept
Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park
Blackstone River Watershed Council
Blackstone Valley Tourism Council
Breaking Branches Pictures
Bristol Historical & Preservation Society
Brown University
-Cogut Institute for the Humanities
-John Carter Brown Library Population Studies and Training Center
-Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice
-Watson Institute
Cause & Effect Inc.
City of Providence
-Department of Art, Culture and Tourism
Creature Conserve
Coventry Land Trust
Cultural Society/AAPI History Museum
Dancing Legacy
DownCity Design
Johnson & Wales University
Langston Hughes Community Poetry Reading
Lippitt House Museum
Little Compton Historical Society
New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center
Newport Historical Society
Oasis International
The Preservation Society of Newport County
Providence Clemente Veterans Initiative
Providence College
Providence Commemoration Lab
Providence Cultural Equity Initiative
Providence Preservation Society
Providence Public Library
Providence Tour Company
Providence Waterways
PVDWorld Music
Queer/Trans Zine Fest
Rhode Island Black Film Festival
Rhode Island Black Heritage Society
Rhode Island College
Rhode Island Department of State
Rhode Island Historical Society
Rhode Island Humanities
Rhode Island Latino Arts
Rhode Island School of Design
-Fleet Library
-RISD Museum
RI Slave History Medallions
Rhode Island State Council on the Arts
Roger Williams University
Roots2Empower
Salve Regina University
Save The Bay
Stages of Freedom
TeatroECAS
Trinity Repertory Company
Tomaquag Museum
Town of Coventry
Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts
University of Rhode Island
Wedding Cake House
The Whale Guitar
Photo credits: Marlisse Payamps, Jane Bird, Stacy Hoshino, Rachael Jeffers, Julia Renaud, and Sophia Mackenzie
