Museums and the construction of memory

As part of the Era of Reclamation event series, special guest Laurella Rinçon joins playwright Bonnie Greer and British Museum Director Hartwig Fischer for an in-person conversation.

Rinçon is the Director of Mémorial ACTe, the memorial and culture centre dedicated to the memory of the slave trade on the Caribbean island of Grande-Terre, Guadeloupe.

Rinçon, Greer and Fischer will look at memory as construct: something that is made. Their focus will be on the Middle Passage – the part of the triangular slave trade in which millions of enslaved Africans were transported to the Americas – and its aftermath. They will look at the Middle Passage asan arena where women on the slave boats constructed new lives.

They also consider how these women brought with them – and handed down – not only the trauma of sexual violence and the loss of family and home, but a new kind of genius, triggered by survival.

Rinçon, Greer and Fischer will also explore how museums and collections can help build a more accurate, empowering and healing picture of identity, history, representation and memory.