Take Me to the Water: Histories of the Black Pacific

Take Me to the Water: Histories of the Black Pacific

Join UCSD professor and curator Caroline Collins and UCSD Provost Angela Booker for a stimulating presentation on our current exhibition, Take Me to the Water: Histories of the Black Pacific (March 23 – May 18). The exhibit re-centers the relationship between Black folks, water, and ships revealing the deep and historic connection between people of African descent and the Pacific Ocean.

Most accounts of U. S maritime histories are disproportionately populated by white seafarers. Yet, from the 16th to the 20th century, Black whalers, commercial mariners, fishers, explorers, soldiers, and sailors traveled the high seas along the Pacific Coast. The exhibit explores the stories of these mariners, their impact in shaping the American Pacific, and their legacy in the context of development of society and identity. The exhibit is curated by Dr. Collins.

Scroll down to register. Refreshments served.

Program Speakers

Dr. Caroline Collins is an Assistant Professor of Social and Spatial Justice in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at UCSD. She charts her interest in Black people’s relationships with water to regular childhood visits to Southern California beaches. Her work examines public remembrances of the American West through ethnographic study, media production, and public history exhibition, and the early histories of oceanic movement and settlement by people of African descent along the Pacific Coast. She's a founder of Black Like Water, a research collective at UCSD that highlights Black relationships to the natural world.

Dr. Angela Booker is the Provost of Eight College and professor in the Dept of Communication at UCSD. Her scholarly work explores the intersection between communication, learning, community engagement, social justice and undoing structural racism. She has published extensively on the topics of learning theory and technology, civic practice and engagement, and social change. She is the co-director of the Black Studies Project.

This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.