Commemorating International Slavery Remembrance Day—August 23, the day designated by UNESCO to memorialize the transatlantic slave trade and its calamitous wake—Royal Museums Greenwich (RMG) presents a special program that explores the legacies of the slave trade and its abolition. Free and open to the public, the program takes places at the National Maritime Museum and Queen’s House on August 23, 2025, from 11:00am to 5:00pm (AST). The programming includes a keynote speech by award-winning Jamaican-born curator and historian Aleema Gray and other activities that stand in conversation with Jacqueline Bishop’s newly installed artwork The Keeper of All The Secrets.
Description: On 23 August 1791, enslaved people on the island of Saint Domingue (modern-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic) rose up against French colonial rule.
The uprising played a crucial role in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.
That’s why, on 23 August each year, Royal Museums Greenwich commemorates International Slavery Remembrance Day and the long struggle for emancipation throughout the world.
2025 in focus
This year’s programme focuses on themes of resistance, care and collective memory, while we bear witness to the resilience of the enslaved and their descendants. Activities will be in conversation with the newly installed artwork, Jacqueline Bishop’s The Keeper of All The Secrets at the Queen’s House.
Opening ceremony and keynote speech
The day will begin with a performance from Ethno Vox choir and an introduction from keynote speaker, Dr Aleema Gray.
Dr Aleema Gray is an award winning Jamaican-born curator, researcher and public historian based in London. She was awarded the Yesu Persaud Scholarship for her PhD entitled Bun Babylon: a community-engaged history of Rastafari in Britain.
Aleema’s practice is driven by a concern for more historically contingent ways of understanding the present, especially in relation to notions of belonging, memory and contested heritage in the African and Caribbean diaspora. She was the Lead Curator for Beyond the Bassline: 500 years of Black British Music at the British Library and the founder of HOUSE OF DREAD, an anti-disciplinary heritage studio dedicated to the preservation and activation of African and Caribbean histories. [. . .]
For more information and full program, see https://www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/national-maritime-museum/international-slavery-remembrance-day and https://www.rmg.co.uk/national-maritime-museum
Also see our previous post https://repeatingislands.com/2025/08/07/installation-the-keeper-of-all-the-secrets/
Commemorating International Slavery Remembrance Day—August 23, the day designated by UNESCO to memorialize the transatlantic slave trade and its calamitous wake—Royal Museums Greenwich (RMG) presents a special program that explores the legacies of the slave trade and its abolition. Free and open to the public, the program takes places at the National Maritime Museum and
