Counter-Narratives

William Wells Brown is known as a Novelist, Historian, and Travel Writer.  His book, "Three Years in Europe: Places I Have Seen, People I Have Met," provides a different perspective on mid 19th Century travel in England and France.

Edmonia Lewis was an American sculptor who studied at Oberlin College and later traveled to Europe where she she worked most of her career in Rome. Her work, Death of Cleopatra, was chosen to be featured at the Centennial in Philadelphia.

Justin Randolph Thompson is an artist and activist who founded Black History Month Florence, a nonprofit organization now called the Recovery Plan. One of his projects is "On Being Present: Recovering Blackness in the Uffizi Galleries.  

Sarah Parker Remond was a late 19th century abolitionist who studied nursing in London and later became a surgeon in Florence, Italy.  Refused the right to travel for lack of a "passport" her story illustrates border crossing on a variety of levels.

Igiaba Scego is an Italian novelist and post-colonial scholar who's work includes "The Color Line", a novel about the travels of a nineteenth century artist and the experiences of a 21st century Somali-Italian art curator.

Tamara Walker is an Historian and Writer whose book, "Beyond the Shores: The History of African Americans Abroad" provides a series of narratives of global black mobility with a mix of historical non-fiction and travel writing.