Community Weekend Honoring Amistad: Film, Music, Exhibit & Waterfront Programs

Discovering Amistad

New Haven, Conn. (July 1, 2024) – The public is invited to a special community weekend coinciding with the New Haven Museum’s (NHM) reconceived exhibition “Amistad Retold” and the docking of the Amistad Freedom Schooner (a reconstruction of the historical vessel) at Long Wharf in New Haven. On Friday, July 19, 2024, at 7:30 p.m., a free outdoor screening of the 1997 film "Amistad" by Steven Spielberg (rated R), with a short introduction exploring its critical reception, will be held at the Canal Boathouse at Long Wharf, with Amistad Freedom Schooner as a commanding visual backdrop. Visitors will visit the schooner and “Food Truck Paradise” on Long Wharf between 3 - 7 p.m. and bring picnics and chairs to the deck. Register here. Weather updates will be posted on the NHM website and social media.

This NHM collaboration with the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, and Discovering Amistad—co-sponsored by the Amistad Committee, the Office of New Haven Affairs, and the Black & Brown Soul Cyclist—will continue on Saturday, July 20, 2024, with a musical performance by Nia Arts and Quoron Walker at 10 a.m., at the New Haven Museum (114 Whitney Ave.). followed by free, hourly tours of the “Amistad: Retold” exhibition till 5 p.m. “Amistad: Retold” highlights the experiences of the people who led the Amistad Revolt and their collective actions to determine their own lives and focuses on New Haven as the site of their incarceration and abolitionist organizing leading to the landmark Supreme Court decision.

At noon on Saturday, a musical performance by Michael Mills, master drummer/percussionist accompanied by drummers of “Rhythms from the Heart” at the Long Wharf Dock will launch an open house of the Amistad Freedom Schooner till 5:00 p.m. Admission will be free of charge. Discovering Amistad staff members will be onsite to discuss the significance of the Amistad Rebellion of 1839, how the ship model was built, and how it is used today.