{"id":481,"date":"2019-08-20T19:18:12","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T19:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allianceinstitute.info\/590try\/?page_id=481"},"modified":"2019-08-22T00:34:09","modified_gmt":"2019-08-22T00:34:09","slug":"a22","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/allianceinstitute.info\/590try\/a22\/","title":{"rendered":"a22"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africatown: Survival and Regeneration<\/h3>\n

The Africatown Connections Blueway, along 10 miles of the Chickasaw Creek ending at Africatown USA State Park in Prichard, Alabama, is being developed as a cultural and recreational treasure. The first phase of the project is completed: identifying the 15 sites that will form the Blueway. There are plans for a visitor center, a tech center, water- based activities and two museums, one of which would highlight Benin, its contributions, traditions, and society. Beyond tourism, the Alliance Institute hopes to establish strong commercial and cultural ties between Benin and Africatown.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Africatown
This will be among the first of the sustainable local-to-global projects honoring the Decade for People of African Descent.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2018, the sunken slave ship Clotilda was discovered in the Bay of Mobile, Alabama, described and pictured in a National Geographic magazine<\/a>. Its last journey carried hostages from what is now Benin to this southern port in the midst of the American Civil War.\u00a0 By the late 1860\u2019s, these Benin refugees had come together to found the free Africatown settlement where they spoke Yoruba and kept their native customs for decades. Africatown is now recognized as a historical monument.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On a warm July evening at the Maison 10<\/a> gallery in New York, a diverse group of supporters celebrated the newly announced collaboration between the Alliance Institute and National Geographic around Africatown Connections on the Blueway — and the discovery of the Clotilda.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/i-AkYXl78jk\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"
Michael \u201cPresident\u201d Anderson, CEO of MPAC SOLUTIONS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Jessica
Jessica Norwood, Emerging Change-Makers and Runway Project, descendant of Africatown founders, and Steve Bradberry, Director of the Alliance Institute.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Iva
Iva Kaufman, of Iva Kaufman Associates, and Mirriam Omala-Gauvin, Adviser for the African Union to the UN<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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