African descent dialog topic of LSU Rural Life Museum symposium
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A two-day symposium focusing on “Discovering How People of African Descent are Interpreted at Louisiana State Plantation Sites” will be held at the LSU Rural Life Museum Friday-Saturday, May 2-3.
Funded by the Lower Mississippi Delta Initiative, the event is free to the public. The goal of the symposium is to promote dialog about how people of African descent are represented at Louisiana plantation sites, both through current staffing and visitation levels, as well as through the interpretation of past centuries.
Friday speakers will be John Michael Vlach, professor of American Studies and Anthropology, George Washington University, 1:15 p.m.; Harvey Bakari, director of African American Interpretation, Colonial Williamsburg, 2 p.m.; and David Floyd, director of the Rural Life Museum, 2:45 p.m. Saturday speakers include Linda Hill, curator and archivist for Center for African and African and American Studies, Southern University, 9 a.m.; Thomas J. Durant Jr., professor, LSU department of sociology, 9:45 a.m.; and Ken Brown, University of Houston, 10:30 a.m.
Break-out sessions will follow the talks.
Sponsors of the event are Cane River Creole National Historical Park and the Louisiana Office of State Parks. Students from the Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts in Natchitoches will assist with registration and the reception. Students from Southern University, Baton Rouge Community College and LSU have visited Louisiana plantations to gather their own information about how people of African descent are interpreted. Their feedback will be included in the program.
In addition, the African American Experience Fund of the National Park Service is producing a new booklet titled African Mastery of a Strange Land, which will be distributed during the symposium. For information, call the LSU Rural Life Museum, (225) 765-2437.
