Newswise — Ruby Bridges, who became a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement when as a 6-year-old she integrated William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, will be among the guest speakers at "Prelude to Freedom: The Ending of the International Slave Trade," an afternoon of performances and presentations marking the 200th anniversary of the ending of the transatlantic slave trade.
The program will take place from 3 to 6 p.m., June 25, in the Chadwick Auditorium, room 131, Goldring/Woldenberg Hall I on Tulane University's uptown campus in New Orleans.
The event is free and open to the public, and also features internationally known speakers from Europe, Africa and the United States, including "¢ Leif Svalesen, a Norwegian writer and one of the divers who discovered and excavated the wreck of the Danish-Norwegian slave ship Fredensborg "¢ Prize-winning poet and storyteller Nikky Finney, Professor of English at the University of Kentucky"¢ Kofi Anyidoho, poet, performer and filmmaker and Professor of Literature and Director of the School Performing Arts at the University of Ghana"¢ Sylvaina Diouf, director of the Schomburg-Mellon Humanities Institute, author of Dreams of Africa: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America.
"Prelude to Freedom: The Ending of the International Slave Trade," is the public portion of the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Transatlantic Slave Trade Education Project international conference hosted by Tulane June 23-28. The conference commemorates the ending of the international slave trade and also pays tribute to the people of New Orleans in their long struggle to recover from the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina.
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