Pittman Orchestrates Welcome Ceremony for Association for African American Museums 2021 Virtual Conference, “SUN SOUL SOIL: DIASPORIC BLACKNESS AND JUSTICE IN GLOBAL MUSEUMS”

I orchestrated the Opening Ceremony and the Calling of Names for the Ancestors for AAAM 2021 Virtual Conference. I included th specific aspects of the conference theme which were incorpoarted into the ceremony and demonstarted through the drumming the ways in which Africans across the diaspora have retained their cultural connections to Africa despite the horror of slavery. I poured libations at Buckroe Beach, Fort Monroe National Monument and Emanicipation Oak at Hampton University touching the soil in these historic and sacred sites in African American history. We poured for those who perished in the Middle Passage, those who perished due to racial violence and terror, all whom we lost due to natural causes and to those we lost due to the global pandemic. We honored the Native blood spilled on these lands to honor their Ancestral connection to Mother Earth. I also participated in a panel discussion after the Opening Ceremony to speak to the importance of these moments in history where we reflect and acknowledge why we must remember the past. SANKOFA!!!!