The St. Thomas-St John Friends of Denmark Society Inc. invites the community to attend a series of illustrated presentations based upon new research gleaned from numerous, formerly unknown, documentary sources. Each lecture in the Centennial Lecture Series (Histories From a Shared Past) will last approximately one half hour. Both programs will begin at 6 p.m. with Lillia King as mistress of ceremonies.
All of them will be held at Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School Auditorium. There will be ample time for questions and interaction with the participants. There will be refreshment breaks on both evenings. The lectures are free and open to the public. Groups of high school and college students are encouraged to attend.
The program will be offered on both St. Croix (at a later date) and St. Thomas; in June, it will be repeated in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Flensburg, Germany. The presentations are sponsored by the USVI Transfer Centennial Commission, the Danish West Indian Society of Denmark, the St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John Friends of Denmark Societies and the Maritime Museum of Flensburg.
Thursday, January 26
“Crossroads of Culture-Pre-Colonial History and Socio Cultural Development in the US Virgin Islands” — Joshua Torres, National Park Service Cultural Resource program manager, Washington, D.C., will present a paper based upon his own archaeological excavations.
“Navigating Currents of Freedom: Runaway Danish Slaves in Pan-Caribbean and Atlantic Perspectiv" — Linda M. Rupert, associate professor, Department of History, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, N.C., will focus on the lives of enslaved Africans called maroons.
“The Complaint as ‘Voice’—Slave Complaints on St. Croix 1800-1850” — Aske Stick, research assistant at the University of Alabama, at the Danish National Archives, looks into police court journals to find instances of the voices of the victims as they tell their side of the story. The mobility of the enslaved offers a clue to their individualism and their identity as revealed in front of a Police Court judge.
“The Sensorium on a Constant Strain: A Sensory History of Natural Disasters in the Danish West Indies in 1867” — Mark Smith, Carolina Distinguished Professor of History, University of South Carolina, will offer an enhanced power point presentation depicting the fury of the hurricane and the following tsunami in 1867.
Friday, January 27
“If Walls Could Talk: A Study of How the Shared-built Environment Affected the Families that Live Within It” — Nadine Marchena-Kean, BA Business, certified public manager
“Belonging in Africa: Euro-African Men on the Gold Coast in the Eighteenth Century” — Guvnor Simonsen, Ph.D.
“A Question or a Fact?” — Per Nielsen, MA, National Park Citizenship