I designed the Pharsalia Plantation Co-Stewardship Project (PPCP) to provide key infrastructure and processes related to collective storytelling at sites of slavery. PPCP is a unique project that encourages and facilitates shared stewardship between descendants of enslaved communities and descendants of the enslaver families from Pharsalia Plantation in Nelson County, Virginia. It includes a series of initiatives that have been designed to sequentially and progressively unfold over time. Each initiative is informed by, created with, and designed to serve descendants. Using this approach ensures that the project’s efforts honor descendants’ ancestors as well as the immeasurable contributions they made to America.
PPCP has four initiatives: Virginia Black Public History Institute (completed); Silenced Voices in Interpreting Sites of Slavery (completed); Slave House Exploration and Evidence Tracing Field School (summers 2024 and 2025); and Negro Woman with her Future Issue and Increase (in progress). All the initiatives are grounded in co-stewardship and use documentary films to capture and convey innovative approaches to collective storytelling.
