Neil M Kennedy
@nmkennedy
Historian and archaeologist of the early modern Atlantic World, specializing in Bermuda, slavery and the slave trade, maritime history, maritime emancipation, Caribbean history, sensory history. Dept of History, Memorial University, Newfoundland.
"Children sell for little." The horrendous arithmetic of the imperial archive. A grim private letter from the governor of Bermuda to the Colonial Office, 1826.
Thank you, that is very gratifying! We’ve only painted the grim outside, and added front garden; ugly windows need replaced and front entry extension planned. The funky modernist bungalows here rarely go up for sale so we had to settle for location. Kitchen was more successful, few walls taken out.
Sitting reading in my living room, I am so pleased with the way these arches play together in the light. I added them to dull squared trim-framed openings in last year’s kitchen renovation to suit the 1954 age of the house and those on the street that haven’t been altered. @brunotonelli.bsky.social
lol, someone butchered the trail sign on the Rennie’s River walk behind my house. Good job! #Anti-AI
Canada Day update from front garden at home. Too hot here in the Kawarthas, Ontario, to go outside. #CatsofBluesky
Babe, what’s wrong? You’ve barely touched the kelp ice cream I got you.
Honoured to be giving annual Packwood-Robinson talk for Bermuda’s Ministry of Culture this August. Named for two Black Bermudian educators who in the ‘70s, w Nellie Musson, began to write Bermuda’s history from below. Packwood asked simply: if slavery here was benign why were there so many runaways?
Aha! Woke up after last night’s storm to see an iceberg floating across the Coish, between us and Seals Nest Islets 7.5km offshore. Not especially big one but it is fairly far away. Something for the guests at the Inn to gaze upon. Met two lawyers from Rochester last night who are guests. Loud.
Behold the Bangbelly! Had to go back for more pork shoulder and fenugreek cod. The salt pork & molasses against the orange custard, so good. As often happens in NL walking along the harbour after a great meal we heard some music and found some gents playing in a shed one of their grandfather’s built
Lions Den hike this morning, along a bit of Fogo headland where four fishing communities once existed, settled in mid-19thC as folk relocated from depleted fishing grounds elsewhere. Eastern Tickle here had 107 people in 1935 Census, church and school, all gone without a trace since 1940s.
Sun setting on Barr’d Island. Hiking tomorrow to see puffins and caribou, maybe a whale and iceberg too.
View from our friends’ cabin bedroom is not half bad. That’s the Fogo Island Inn across the harbour, where the world’s jet setters helicopter in to experience some time with local craftspeople and the famous fishermen’s cooperative, about which there is a famous NFB/MUN series of films in 1967.
On the ferry to Fogo Island, five hours north of St John’s, for long weekend hiking adventures with Spousal Unit. First iceberg spotted from ferry, 60’ high or so. Eagles and Common Turrs mostly in air. Puffins on island now for season so hopefully we’ll see some. #Newfoundland #Hiking
Came across an uncommon nautical term - woman head - I had not seen in a document before, this one from an 1828 Bermuda Vice Admiralty Court case. More commonly used in a carver's records to indicate a figurehead that was a bust rather than a full torso. #MaritimeHistory
Thought of Tulip when I saw the best dog in Venice, laser focused on the door of the food co-op, nothing would distract her until her mom came out.
Here John Beadle’s Still Ringing (2018) reimagines a punishment collar with the cowbells associated in Junkanoo processions with celebration, survival, and collective memory, to give them an unsettling context redolent with the afterlives of slavery. #SlaveryArchive
Striking cerebral work at Brazil’s pavilion, but Bahamas’ pavilion’s “in another man’s yard - posthumous collaborations” surpasses all in terms of coherent, clearly articulated vision. Older work by late John Beadle and brilliant new by Lavar Munroe, explore Junkanoo, burial rites, #Hydrofeminism
From rural Uruguay, Leonilda González’s Novias revolucionaries (revolutionary brides) late 1960s series has stuck with me, the Byzantine figures suiting Venezia. Similarly, from Lebanon, Hala Schoukair’s Anatomy of Tears mesmerized with organic healing and her vivid blues.
Hydrofeminism has been a dominant themes of the Biennale, alongside protest, uncertainty, loss. Opening weekend protests have Russia’s pavilion still closed (Israel’s closed “for maintenance”). Some of the protestors’ posters are now set out in front of Palestinian artists, such as Mohammed Joha.
@drleonj.bsky.social Our house-sitter just sent us a “this cat is an a**hole” message. At least the cat keeps the dogs occupied.
Not so far (tho Arno looked low already, btw, not good), despite much acqua frizzante. No unintended immersions nella laguna whilst rowing, happily. Currently observing Chris Levine’s green laser for world peace Bienniale installation, so anticipate good news soon. Le sigh.
Entered into evidence: rowed by Spousal Unit to a first rate wine bar in Cannaregio, courtesy of an all-women’s Venetian rowing team. (I did row us back, to be sure, lazy youths contributing a little bit).
We’ve made it to the 1450s palazzo where we stayed when we eloped 25 yrs ago, at the time it was still a convent. After our wedding in Cosimo I de’ Medici’s bedroom, the nuns surprised us w berries & champagne in the loggia. Galileo’s prison tower is just behind me. Serene days. Please send more €…