PLEASE SEE GRAPHICS AND TEXT SUBPAGE
3.31.09
The Port as an Anchor for Community: Its importance as a Geographic Site
The port of Providence was a significant site for the Cape Verdean community of Fox Point for several key reasons:
1) It served as the main entry point into the city/country/new way of life (even if the literal entry point/point of disembarkment was New Bedford, the port of Providence was clearly a symbolic site for the community), (im)migration
2) It was the site of work for the majority of men who worked as stevedores/longshoremen (and their work was the means by which they supported their families)
3) The Longshoreman's Union (one of the first integrated local unions, organized and run by people of color)
Main Points/Questions:
-how did people sustain themselves? how did Cape Verdeans maintain/build their life in Fox Point?
-Work at the port as a means to secure capital, gain property, and build/sustain community (the port as a site for work as a longshoreman...)
-The Networks: social networks that were created out of labor (important to note: the opportunity for work was also
Themes for Interpretation:
-Telling particular/individual stories: what was the actual labor like? Using descriptive narratives, drawing from oral histories
-The importance of water (both literal and symbolic) in the Cape Verdean story, their way of life
Main Community Liaison Contacts: Claire Andrade-Watkins, Annie Valk, Olivia Ildefonso, Lou Costa, Stevie Bento, Sam Beck
Resources for Research:
1) Fox Point Oral History Archive
2) Oral histories conducted by Oliva Ildefonso for her work research on the union
3) Images from Lou Costa's collection
4) Images from Annie's collection
5) Cape Verdean Museum (in touch with Yvonne Smart)
6) Rhode Island College
7) Rhode Island Historical Society
Object List (preliminary):
1) Longshoreman's Hook (other tools related to work in the port, for example: ropes)
2) Images (Photographs: cityscape, men at work)
Photographs from Annie's collection as key pieces, Lou Costa's website, Claire's archive
3) Longshoreman Union Document (Union charter, meeting minutes, union cards
4) Oral History Archives (Fox Point Oral History project)
Contacted/Will Contact:
1) Marlene Lopes, RIC (contacted, no response as of 3/31/09)
2) Sam Beck (contacted 4/1/09)
3) Gwen Stern, Head of State Archives (contacted 4/1/09)
4) Ethnic Studies Department: Olivia Ildefonso (contacted 4/1/09)
Color Schemes:
-gray/monotone (matching the colors of the photographs from Annie's collection)?
-blue (for the wall text)? Is something evocative of the water, sea, dock cliche?
Must Think About/Things to Consider:
1) How to incorporate the story of other businesses, other types of work that the community engaged in.
2) Do we try to incorporate women's histories/women's work? Longshoring was and is a predominantly male profession. Is the port section the right place to tell the story of Cape Verdean women?
3) What about telling the stories of unions other than the longshoreman's union?
4.10.09
100-word Main Label
Providence’s waterfront and its port were crucial aspects of the fabric of the Fox Point community. The port’s thriving shipping industry provided well-paying jobs to Cape Verdean men. Many of the men worked as longshoremen, loading and unloading cargo. This work was difficult and dangerous, and in response, the men eventually mobilized to become a part of the International Longshoremen's Association. They formed Local 1329, one of the first integrated local unions, organized and run by people of color. The accessibility of the port also gave the community the ability to travel back and forth to the Cape Verde islands.
(stress the social network aspect?)
4.12.09
Questions/Notes:
1) Although we subdivided the port section into 3 parts (im-migration, work/labor and the union) how separate should they be in the exhibit? (how should each subsection relate to each other? do they necessarily need to be understood as subsections?)
2) How do we balance the Fox Point Oral History Project the Cape Verdean Fox Point project within our section?
3) Important to keep in mind that the Port is but one of 8 separate sections that all need to fit together...
4) We are aiming to include 3 related but distinct narratives (and a physical recreation) of the port in a very small space... Must be conscious of not overwhelming the space with artifacts...
5) Balancing our media: photography, oral history, physical artifacts, written materials (or we should pick a focus? for example, the port section will be driven by the stories the photographs tell?)
6) How to display oral histories (in relationship to other sections/ambient noise in the room)
4.14.09
-met with Harold Fontes and Johnny Costa (use of oral histories approved)
-waiting to hear from Claire regarding materials from Stevie Bento
-ship model: will be acquired 4.27 (contact: CACD, Micah, Ron)
-waiting on Lou Costa for union cards, longshoreman's hook (back up: CV Museum in East Providence, eBay)
4.15.09
Main Label version 2
The Port of Providence was not the physical center of Fox Point, but the port as place was a central part of many other aspects of Cape Verdean community there. It was a place of employment and thus of social interaction, as well as a means of travel and connection to Cape Verde. Perhaps not coincidentally, the physical decimation of the Cape Verdean Fox Point community that took place in the 1960s and 1970s was only slightly preceded by a physical change in the Port of Providence landscape that took place from 1920-1960.
Model of Ernestina from Marlene Lopes at RIC (spoke with Marlene, verbal agreement)
4.20.09
THIS WEEK
Reina: follow through/acquire all artifacts, images (main contacts: Claire, Lou, Olivia, Marlene Lopes at RIC, CV Museum)
Caitlin: recreation of the port (see images attached below)
Montana: the mural of the port (see images attached below, main contacts: Meghan, Ron)