MPCPMP, established in 2011, is a national non-profit organization. Its mission is to honor the two million captive Africans who perished during the trans-Atlantic crossing known as the Middle Passage and the ten million who survived to build the Americas. Both the ocean and the arrival locations are sacred spaces. By re-centering the history of place and people, MPCPMP informs and assists local communities in more than 90 arrival locations from New Hampshire to Texas in publicly acknowledging with markers and remembrance ceremonies their connection to the trans-Atlantic human trade as well as the arrival, presence, and contributions of Africans and their descendants.

Jessica is one of several digital researchers aiding the non-profit Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project (MPCPMP) in digitizing their source material and creating accessible data for the public through Emory, OpenTour, and other platforms. The Mellon Foundation has awarded a 3-year grant to the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project (MPCPMP) to support community-led research efforts, outreach, organizing, discussion, planning, and engagement with the Black Atlantic's silenced and ignored histories.

Both the ocean and the arrival locations are sacred spaces to MPCPMP and each researcher delves into the truth-telling journey personally. By re-centering the history of place and people, we inform and assist local communities in more than 90 arrival locations from New Hampshire to Puerto Rico in publicly acknowledging with markers and remembrance ceremonies their connection to the trans-Atlantic human trade as well as the arrival, presence, and contributions of Africans and their descendants.

This is a link to MPCPMP's website: www.middlepassageproject.org

These are the tours we have completed thus far through Open Tour (below); there are QR codes being generated at each site/ marker, and therefore also a mobile component: https://middle-passage-markers.opentour.site/tours

To date, Jessica personally contributed narratives, photography, or community engagement research to the following sites: St. Augustine, Florida; Africatown, Alabama; Darien/Sapelo Sound, GA; Perth Amboy, NJ, and Boston, Massachusetts.

Other narratives we are continuing to research currently are Ponce, Puerto Rico and Pensacola, Florida. Jessica and the entire team contributes to edits, meeting weekly and more if necesssary to ensure language, imagery, maps, and QR codes created serve the community and the larger mission of MPCPMP: "to honor the two million captive Africans who perished during the transatlantic crossing known as the Middle Passage and the ten million who survived to build the Americas."

Sites have the opportunity to memorialize as they choose during unveilings of markers or QR codes. Click the image below to see this example from Bristol, RI.

It was an honor for Jessica to meet Ann Chinn in Gainesville, Florida, on March 2023, for a tour of Haile Plantation House (Kanapaha). Serving as the Project Founder and Program Director of MPCPMP, Ann's diverse background spans advocacy for children and families in Washington, DC, along with roles as a textile artist, retailer, organizer of a collective artists' market, and historian. Jessica is proud to now call her both her supervisor and a public history colleague!